Clear Skies
by The Unplanner
Summary: In the aftermath of Sora's aborted Mark of Mastery exam, Lambda and the other Guardians of Light race against Xehanort and his Seekers of Darkness to prepare for the final clash. Team Riku seeks to revive lost allies, Team Sora seeks to regain lost strength, and Team Roxas seeks to crack Ansem's Code. And deep in the Realm of Darkness, the original Time Break grows ever larger...
1. A Goal to Reach

**Clear Skies**

**Chapter 1: A Goal to Reach**

**-"Here We Go Again..."-**

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_A/N: Hello again! It's finally time to kick off the next and possibly last installment of the _Time Break Saga_!_

_Lambda, Kairi, and the rest of the crew from _Asleep at Dawn_ have done enough training to give them a solid foothold as they rejoin their own teams for their own tasks. It's a good thing there are several teams to divide the load - there's a lot to do!_

_Starting with..._

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_The Mysterious Tower: Sorcerer's Loft..._

Lambda, Kairi, Xion, Roxas, and Lea disembarked the Ghost Train and filed into Yen Sid's office. Oddly, they only had to go through the front door to get there - no Wayward Stairs in the way.

Yen Sid still sat in his usual chair while Mickey and Riku discussed something. Hazama was nowhere to be found; he must have already left for his self-assigned recon mission.

"...So after you two disappeared..."

"_We_ disappeared? From our point of view, you disappeared first."

"It's relative, I guess. Either way, we got separated, and then - Oh! Hello again, everyone! That sure was fast! I barely even started explaining!"

Xion rolled her eyes. "Apparently, we underestimated how much Kairi wants to stick by Sora."

Donald and Goofy entered the room from the side door. "Then it's a shame he's not back yet, a-hyuck!"

"What did he leave for, anyway?!" Donald griped.

"Not to worry, I can scry on him this time." Yen Sid waved a hand over his desk, creating a swirl of smoke and an image of Sora hugging an army of Dream Eaters.

Donald threw his hands up and turned away. "I should've known."

Mickey cleared his throat. "Anyway, back to the story? I was left to wander the Realm of Darkness for a while after that. After you and Sora restored all the worlds-"

Lambda interrupted, "You get a lot of credit for that too, Your Majesty. We needed two Keyblades."

"-After that, there wasn't much to see in the Realm of Darkness but twisted stone pathways and LOTS of Heartless. Only the Pureblood kind, but there are some weird varieties that don't show up in the Realm of Light. But there was still a Light down there, so I set off to find it, and eventually I found her! Master Aqua was down there, fighting Heartless just like I was. It seemed like she hadn't aged a day since we lost track of her...gosh, it must've been more than ten years ago. So I did that thing I do where I jump in to save people right in the nick of time. She claimed she'd been trapped down there while trying to save her friend Terra, 'cause she only had the chance to save one of them, but as far as I can tell, Terra's still missing."

Lambda summed it up. "She willingly trapped herself in the Realm of Darkness for a decade for just a small chance to save her friend? No wonder she's a Keyblade Master."

Riku asked, "But you escaped the Realm of Darkness. Didn't Aqua escape, too?"

Mickey slumped. "I was getting to that. I was trying to cheer her up about being alone for a decade in the dark, but then that card suddenly appeared. You remember the one that opened up the Twilight Town floor in Castle Oblivion? I knew you needed help real fast, so I took the card and let it guide me back to the Realm Between, but Aqua got left behind. I only had time to promise I'd find a way back to save her, too."

Riku's fist tightened. "So...it's my fault?"

Lambda grabbed that hand. "Absolutely not! It's totally Ansem's fault. Xehanort's Heartless, whatever."

"I call him 'X-Heartless'," Kairi put in.

"Yeah, you're right, girls. I swear he reminds me of Terra, too. I actually met him once when I was really little - he's the one who gave me a Keyblade."

Remaining on topic, Goofy asked, "So you've known where Aqua was this whole time, Your Majesty? Why didn't you say anything?"

Donald snapped, "She's our friend too!"

"Yeah, what he said! Even if we only met her that one time, of course we'd wanna help her out if she's in trouble!"

"And that is exactly why I forbade Mickey from telling you," Yen Sid explained. "because we unfortunately lacked the means to rescue Master Aqua back then. Entering the Realm of Darkness the first time was not a simple task for Mickey. Even if you could get there, it requires special circumstances to return, and especially to rescue another person from that place. And yet, I know that knowledge would not deter you. Even if all of you stayed, surely Sora would have mounted a foolish attempt at rescue, and then all would be lost."

Lambda raised a finger to object, then lowered it when she realized she couldn't actually argue the point. "That does make sense. It's still frustrating, but it makes sense."

Mickey chimed in, "I had to keep it a secret back then, but things are different now. Now, we _can_ help Aqua! Riku has the Power of Waking now! Among other things, it can be used to get in and out of the Realm of Darkness and break its hold on hearts that are trapped there...at least, in theory. No one's ever tried it. Not even me; I kinda forgot about having it after a few decades."

Riku grinned. "So all those other rules aren't a problem when I'm involved! Okay, I'll make it work. Are you ready to go?"

"No, you are not," Yen Sid interjected. "The Realm of Darkness is dangerous, and you will be isolated from the rest of our allies, so take these with you." Three suitcases appeared on the sorcerer's desk, each with a complex pattern of familiar symbols and emblems over a black background. One pattern was blue, one was red, and the last was green. "The Three Good Fairies have been very helpful of late. They studied the Black Coats used by Organization XIII, and designed these garments that will protect you in the Realm of Darkness."

Riku groaned, "Aw, man, I only got the outfit I'm wearing recently...somehow. And you _know_ these protective clothes never work the way they're supposed to." He picked up the blue suitcase anyway.

"Don't be so ungrateful, dear, it's a gift," Lambda admonished him. "Anyway, I just lost the outfit Kairi bought for me - a big, fire-elemental Heartless burned it all off - so I'm glad there turned out to be a new outfit waiting for me!" Lambda lifted the green suitcase.

Mickey grabbed the red one. "Tell the fairies 'Thanks' for us!" He darted into the changing room on the right, then darted right back out in his new outfit: a casual looking shirt, jacket, and pants. It had gray plaid accents on the pants and the jacket, and unlike most outfits from Mickey's world, it only had one zipper. "Riku, your turn!"

Riku went into the changing room next. Unlike Mickey, he took a more normal amount of time to change clothes and come back out. He had a plain white shirt tucked into blue pants with plaid cuffs, black boots secured to his feet with lace and buckles, a dark gray jacket with plaid accents in the same place as Mickey's, and a bunch of extra accessories - mostly belts. He had two buckles on each boot, one belt around his waist, and three belts around each leg of his pants, which came to a total of eleven belts! If that wasn't extraneous enough, he seemed to be wearing four layers of fingerless gloves. Only one zipper, though. "I think I got it all on right. I'm kind of surprised that I can still move my fingers normally; were the extra gloves supposed to be spares?"

"Probably, but it looks really good on you the way it is. Okay, now it's my turn to change!" Lambda smooched Riku's cheek as she passed him. She quickly returned, since her outfit didn't have so many extra accessories. It was similar to Kairi's new Very Special Outfit, except Lambda's was emerald green everywhere that Kairi's was bubblegum pink. It also had long sleeves with a green-and-black plaid pattern that hugged her arms. She still wore her iconic bodysuit underneath the minidress, and it could be seen both through the zipper, which she left halfway unzipped, and peeking out from under the skirt. She hadn't put on the boots that came with the outfit, instead stuffing them into her Bag of Holding (which had somehow survived the _Volcanic Emperor's_ wrath). She pulled up the jacket's green hood with black kitty ears to show it off for a moment before removing it and pulling her long braid out of the back of the dress. "Looks like this outfit doesn't have the 'very special powers' that Kairi's version does. I guess the fairies had to drop some features to get enough outfits ready for everyone. Feels great, though!"

Lea whined, "Aw, I didn't get a new outfit!"

Xion shrugged. "I don't think I'd want to give up this shirt, anyway." She changed her shirt's slogan to read, _"Go Team Roxas!"_

Riku opened the door leading outside the Tower, letting golden rays of perpetual sunset spill out. "Lambda, Mickey, are you ready? Let's go to the Realm of Darkness!"

Mickey dashed forward. "Yeah! This'll be just like old times!"

Lambda grabbed the King by his new jacket's collar before he could escape through the door. "Hopefully not; we tended to lose track of King Mickey a lot back then."

_"And don't forget that I'm here now. I have a few tricks I can use to help out, even like this,"_ Replica added from inside Riku's heart.

Riku put on his best Sora impression. "We'll be back before you know it!" The door closed behind them as they headed out to Mickey's Gummi Ship, the modified high-occupancy _Highwind_.

...Then the door opened and admitted Sora back into the room. "Hi, everyone! I'm back! ...Wait, where's Riku and the King?"

Kairi replied, "Welcome back, Sora! Team Riku just left to go save someone named 'Master Aqua' from the Realm of Darkness. I can't shake the feeling that her name sounds really familiar...anyway, we've got our own tasks to worry about. Don't worry, Riku will be fine! So we should focus on our own tasks."

"Right," Roxas spoke up, presenting the mysterious flash drive Riku brought back from Sora's heart. "My group, which is called 'Team Roxas' according to Xion's shirt, will have to figure out what data is hidden on this thing and try to get as many recompleted Organization XIII members on our side as possible. I'm not particularly optimistic about the second part, but you never know."

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Kairi passed Xion a little book titled _There Goes a Keyblade Glider! _"I know you don't actually need to know about the whole Keyblade Formchange thing, but the Gates Between are super useful, so you should know how to open them." Xion flipped open the book and started studying the picture-filled cardboard pages.

Sora pouted, "Aw, I want to know how to transform my Keyblade!"

"Then I'll teach you how, Sora. After all, we _are_ going out on a training journey together!" Kairi wrapped her arms around Donald and Goofy and dragged them into a hug around Sora, much to Goofy's surprise and Donald's irritation.

Xion snapped the book closed. "I think I've figured it out. Alright, everyone! We're off to Radiant Garden!" She summoned her Keyblade, **Forget-Me-Not**, in a swirl of white and blue Light trails. A beam fired from its tip and opened a portal to another world next to Yen Sid's actual front door. Team Roxas summoned their Black Coats, pulled up their hoods, and filed through, holding hands for safety.

"Wait a sec-" They were gone, and the portal evaporated. Sora slumped. "They took the book with them. When are we even going to see them again?"

Namine spoke up. _"Like Kairi said, it'll be fine. Just let her help you."_

Donald added, "Yeah! And Hercules probably knows way more things than that stupid book anyway."

Goofy clapped his fist on his other palm. "Then we should get goin' and meet him!"

"Hmm...I wonder..." Kairi closed her eyes and concentrated, creating a swirl of green Light at her feet. "It worked outside the Training Worlds! C'mon, everyone, this save point will teleport us to the Gummi Ship!"

Goofy pointed out, "Didn't Team Riku just take the Gummi Ship and leave?"

Kairi face-faulted. "Oh, right. Better _not_ teleport, then."

Yen Sid gestured to the window, where a large red-and-yellow shape rose up to block the view of the perpetually starry sky. "Mickey uses the modified _Highwind_, but I still have the old _Kingdom_ model parked behind my tower - Chip and Dale discarded it there like a pack of nutshells. You would be doing me a favor by using it for your journey. I wish you all good fortune."

"Thank you, Master Yen Sid." Kairi curtseyed, mentally retargeted the save point, and vanished in a flash of green Light.

"That's a pretty spiffy trick, a-hyuck!" Goofy followed suit.

"I _guess_ Kairi can pull her weight on this trip." Donald vanished as well.

"Wait for me!" Sora disappeared, too, and the save point faded away.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Meanwhile, aboard the Highwind..._

_EX Gummi Space: Trackless Tunnel..._

Team Riku blasted off into the green Gummi Route used by Yen Sid's Ghost Train. Mickey was in the driver's seat, Riku was the gunner, and Lambda was sitting on one of the long benches Chip and Dale had added to turn the _Highwind_ into a kind of space bus, since it still had no Teeny Ship support despite the overhaul. "So, where are we headed exactly?"

Mickey replied, "To Radiant Garden! I found the exact spot where Aqua fell into the Realm of Darkness, so we should head there to start our search. Or...we would be headed there if all the Gummi Routes hadn't shuffled around again. Take a look - we're stuck."

The space around the _Highwind,_ which used to be a cylindrical tunnel from the Mysterious Tower to whatever world Yen Sid had parked beside, was now wide open and spherical, but still empty except for the Mysterious Tower behind them. No other worlds, warp portals, or Heartless were there to share the sky. Ethereal train tracks looped around the perimeter of the area reachable by normal flight - if they tried to pass that border, Team Riku would crash right into the walls of Light and raw Gummi material that kept all the worlds separate from each other.

"Don't worry, I've got that covered." Lambda closed her eyes for a moment, then stared slightly to the left. "Scanning...target ID: 'Leon' located." She materialized a holographic keyboard in front of her and sent a glow from her hands into it. "Data transferred to navigation systems." She stopped using robo-speak and summoned her Murakumo-themed Keyblade, **Elysium**, in a swirl of green rectangles. "I'll open up a Gate Between." She fired a beam that passed through the _Highwind_'s windshield, then expanded into a swirling vortex large enough for the ship to pass. "You might want to take it slow until we get to the other side, or we might craAAAAAHHH-"

The _Highwind _screamed through the portal at full boost. Let the record show that Mickey is simply incapable of "taking it slow."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Meanwhile, aboard the Kingdom..._

The four - er, six, counting Jiminy and Namine - members of Team Sora ran into a problem immediately.

Sora realized, "There are only three seats!"

"Yup," Goofy agreed.

"Now what?" Donald groaned. They could hardly just leave Kairi behind at Yen Sid's place.

Namine suggested, _"Maybe Kairi could sit in Sora's lap?"_

Kairi was all for the idea, and maneuvered a reluctant Sora into the pilot seat to do so, but it turned out to be hard to pilot a Gummi Ship with a girl blocking the view. "Drat. I'll just hold onto the back of the seat or something. We can install a new cockpit later."

Goofy nodded. "That's right, these things are modeler."

"'Modular'!" Donald corrected.

"Right, what he said."

Sora grabbed the controls, excited to be back behind the chunky wheel of a Gummi Ship once more. "Okay, hold on tight, Kairi! We're blasting off!" Kairi held tight to the back of Sora's seat as the ship tilted and zoomed off into the sky...

...Only to run into the same problem Team Riku did. As he slowed the _Kingdom_ to a halt, Sora groaned, "Rrgh... How are we gonna get there _now?_"

"Looks like all the old pathways are closed," Goofy observed.

"That's no good! Do something, Sora!" Donald whined.

"'May your heart be your guiding key'," Goofy mumbled to himself.

Sora cocked his head sideways. "What's that?"

"Yen Sid always used to say that, right before he sent us off on all our really important adventures!"

_"Bullshit!"_

"Namine, language!" Kairi was scandalized. "I'm sorry, Hazama must have rubbed off on her."

_"But Yen Sid never did that. I just double-checked Sora's and Donald's memories, and yours too, Goofy - he said no such thing."_

"Huh. Then why did I think he did...? I couldn't'a come up with that on my own." Goofy scratched his head, trying to figure out the anomaly in his memory.

"In the meantime, I think I have an actual solution to our problem," Kairi announced. She summoned her floral-themed Keyblade, **Destiny's Embrace**, and shot a beam from it through the windshield to open a Gate Between. "That should at least get us close to Olympus Colosseum."

Sora applauded. "Nice! Hey, I think I could do that, too!"

"Of course you can; it was in that book. I told you I'd help teach you what I learned!" Kairi dismissed her Keyblade and got a grip on the seat again.

"Thanks, Kairi. Okay, guys, for real this time: blast off!" The _Kingdom_ zoomed off to a new adventure...

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Radiant Garden: Ansem's Study..._

A Dark Corridor opened, and Team Roxas' three members filed out of it...only to suddenly find a pair of lances at each of their throats. Lea slumped over as far as he could without getting impaled. "Well, I can't say I expected this to go any better."

"Xaldin, is that you?" Roxas asked, keeping his voice level and non-threatening.

The lances backed off an inch. "It's 'Dilan' now," their owner replied. He still had the same dreadlocks and beard, but he was now dressed in some kind of guard uniform with a gray dress shirt, black pants, and white gloves. Simple heart designs on the collar and gloves spruced up the otherwise bland outfit.

Behind him, Lexaeus - er, Aeleus - leaned against a wall with his arms crossed, wearing an identical uniform, and said nothing. His glare conveyed his sentiments well enough without words...well, his glare _and_ the massive tomahawk leaning against the wall next to him.

"Why are you here, Axel?" A man in a lab coat with slate-gray hair covering his right eye demanded, entering in a hurry through the main door.

"Aw, I'm hurt. I thought we were using our whole-people names now, Ienzo. I'm Lea now - got it memorized?"

Ienzo scowled. "That still doesn't explain why you would ever show your face here again."

"Just an errand, really. Xehanort's got this whole scheme going that we need to stop, and us Guardians of Light need to know whether the other ex-Organization members want to get involved."

Roxas facepalmed. Lea was not doing any favors for their negotiating position. "Come on, we're not here to fight. Plus, there's this thing." He produced the memory stick containing Ansem's Code. "Ansem the Wise left some kind of data inside Sora. If nothing else, you guys probably want to know what's on it as much as we do."

Ienzo, Aeleus, and Dilan all flinched at the mention of their former master. "...I suppose we do. Let them go, Dilan. We need to analyze that drive as soon as possible." Dilan's lances were finally dismissed, and Aeleus straightened up and opened the secret passage in the wall he was resting on. The two of them led the way to Ansem's hidden computer room, but the atmosphere was still quite tense.

Xion asked, "Is there anything we can do to help in the meantime? I'd really rather be allies with all of you. Or we could be friends, that would be nice."

Ienzo didn't seem particularly receptive to the offer, but the scientist in him couldn't resist a few inquiries. "Remind me who you...never mind, I remember. Xion, the so-called fourteenth member. How are you even here? You were eliminated by Roxas, correct? But as a Replica, you wouldn't have been recompleted as anyone." Roxas flinched heavily when his name and deed were mentioned.

Xion answered all Ienzo's questions with one word: "Sora."

Ienzo spluttered, "Th...that's it? Just 'Sora'? Is that supposed to explain any of this?"

"You'd be surprised how often 'Sora' turns out to be the only explanation," Lea drawled, complete with air-quotes.

"...Although I'm forced to concede the point, it's still quite frustrating." Ienzo put his chin in his palm and started pondering while walking.

Roxas warned, "Don't think about it too much. I mean it, _don't._ Ansem the Wise fell to Darkness because he couldn't science his way around Sora, among other things."

"...I see. If only he was here, he could've helped us analyze that data you have. Speaking of which, I'm going to need that drive in a moment." Ienzo cracked his knuckles and started typing on the giant terminal's giant keyboard, booting up several kinds of analyzers and codebreakers. Sora would've gotten dizzy watching Ienzo work his technological talents.

Roxas mutely handed over the stick. Truth be told, he had no more idea what Ienzo was doing than Sora would. As soon as Ienzo inserted the drive, though, a few progress bars popped up on the various screens, all frustratingly low.

"This will probably take a few-" ***CRASH!***

"What in the world was that?!" Dilan re-summoned his lances.

"Outside?" Speaking his first word since Team Roxas arrived, Aeleus grabbed his tomahawk (which just ripped itself out of the bare floor, leaving no seam) and dashed away, with Dilan right behind him.

Xion tugged Lea's sleeve. "Maybe it's some kind of Heartless! We should check it out!"

Lea nodded. "Yeah, those two could probably use some Keyblade-wielding help if it is."

"Keyblade-wielding?" Ienzo asked.

"All three of us! Got it memorized?" The three of them summoned four Keyblades in response, gave the scientist Axel's signature smirk (to varying degrees of success; Xion wasn't even close), and followed the other two ex-Organization members out of the castle.

Ienzo shook his head in disbelief before turning back to his programs. _Who would've thought...him, worthy of the Keyblade! Or perhaps it's a trick? Well, at minimum, Sora must have trusted him with the data that was left in his heart. Perhaps I should give Lea the benefit of the doubt...for now._

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Radiant Garden: Town Square..._

The Radiant Garden Restoration Committee had made rapid progress with rebuilding the town, even in the scant few days since it was recently smashed by an army of Heartless. Morale was at an all-time high with the recent news of Xemnas' defeat, and Cid's Magitek machines and revamped Claymore Defense Grid had made the reconstruction efforts amazingly efficient. The populated and protected area of the town had expanded far enough to rebuild the beautiful clearing and flower garden that once stood where Demyx had been eliminated.

Aerith was there today, applying her impressive gardening skills to the area...when suddenly a long Gummi Ship came careening out of a portal in the sky and crashed right into the center of the square. A loud ***CRASH!*** sound accompanied its impact. The blue mosaic of the square shattered all over the place, creating even more noise and _ruining Aerith's chrysanthemums_. She stomped over to the half-buried cockpit of the _Highwind_ to give the pilot a stern piece of her mind.

Before she could reach it, a teleport circle appeared, producing Riku, Lambda, and Mickey. Lambda was already scolding Mickey enough that Aerith didn't have to. "I _told_ you to slow down, Mickey! Just look at this mess we've made!"

Riku sighed. "It's a lost cause, dear. Getting Mickey to ease up on the accelerator is like getting you to wear boots."

"...Touché." Lambda's expression lightened up a bit.

Mickey apologized, "Gosh, I'm real sorry, guys. Riku, do you wanna be the pilot next time?"

_"We'll need to fix the ship first."_ Aerith heard Riku's voice again, but his mouth hadn't moved. What...?

Riku noticed Aerith, and his mouth moved as he spoke this time. "Oh, hey! Long time no see, Aerith! ...And Yuffie. And Leon. And...Lexaeus?"

"He's Aeleus now! Get it memorized!" Team Roxas arrived at the back of the gathering crowd, as well.

The other man wearing the same uniform as Aeleus spoke up. "I hope this isn't how you maintain order on every world you visit, Riku. I'm Dilan, by the way. You may remember meeting 'Xaldin' briefly at Beast's Castle, but now I'm back to protecting the peace of this town...and you are not helping one bit with that."

"Hey, blame Mickey, not me!" Riku pointed down at the reckless pilot in question.

"I said I was sorry!"

"Calm down. I can't exactly arrest the King of another world - diplomatic immunity doesn't even begin to cover it, and then there's the Keyblade to consider. There's too much drama where that thing's involved."

Riku got down to business. "Speaking of the Keyblade, Mickey says the spot we crashed is pretty much exactly where he lost track of a Keyblade Master named Aqua, so we're here to mount a rescue expedition to the Realm of Darkness and save her."

Even if he didn't look it, Dilan was one of Ansem's scientific apprentices, too. "You can _do_ that? Every bit of research we did on the Realm of Darkness..."

"...Didn't take into account the Keyblade, these protective clothes, or the Power of Waking, which is a new thing I have."

Dilan shrugged. "Well, it's your funeral. Just don't leave the gates open for the Heartless to invade."

"Sure thing. Um...we've got to clear the wreckage first, though."

"Hmph." Aeleus flicked his wrist, and a giant fist of shaped stone punched up from below the _Highwind_, knocking the whole ship into the air. Dilan threw a hand forward and surrounded the ship in a cushion of wind to set it gently on the ground.

"Nice moves! I guess you guys came back stronger, too," Lea called.

"Not just stronger." Aeleus concentrated, and all the displaced bits of dirt and stone from the crash skittered back to their proper places, leaving the town square pristine (except for Aerith's poor flowers, which she was already tending with various tools and even Cure magic). "We have greater control as well."

Lea shrugged. "Consider it memorized. Lucky you; I still need some work on that front."

Mickey bounded over and shook Dilan's hand. "Well, thanks for all the help! We'll be back in a jiffy with Master Aqua!"

"Right." Riku summoned his Keyblade, **Way to Dawn**, and fired a golden beam at the ground. Instead of an answering flash of Light, a bubbling pit of Darkness spread from the point of impact. "...Here we go."

"Come back safe!" Yuffie spoke up. "We had a party planned for you guys and everything!"

"...You're strong. You'll be fine down there." Coming from Leon, this was a veritable gush of praise.

"Now go on and get outta here before the Heartless decide we've rolled out the red carpet for 'em!" Cid wasn't a big softy like Leon. "I'll have your ship up and running again by the time you come back, so you've gotta stop by and pick up the receipt, y'hear?" ...Maybe there was a soft spot or two in him after all.

"Right! See you soon, everyone!" Lambda took Riku's and Mickey's hands, and the three of them jumped into the Realm of Darkness together.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_A/N: There we go, some necessary exposition and recap, and a solid foundation to start off this new adventure!_

_I hope everyone who read the previous three "books" of the _Time Break Saga_ is still here, because I am going to finish this._

_Let me know what you think! Am I too close to canon? Too far? Did I alliterate too much as a result of replaying _Dragon Quest Heroes_ recently?_


	2. To Be Strong

**Clear Skies**

**Chapter 2: To Be Strong**

**-Holding Out for a PROFESSIONAL Hero-**

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_A/N: Now it really starts! The story's perspective will shift several times between the different teams, starting here with Team Sora._

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Team Sora's POV] Olympus: Mount Olympus..._

"Huh? Where's the Colosseum?" Donald looked left and right, apparently expecting a shiny gold logo to appear nearby with trumpeting fanfare.

"Maybe it's on top of the mountain?" Goofy hypothesized. After all, there were clouds below them in the Colosseum before, and it was a long way downstairs to the nearby city (or the Underworld). As for where Team Sora stood now, they seemed to be on a mostly barren trail halfway up a comparably tall mountain.

Kairi rubbed her neck sheepishly. "Sorry, everyone. I guess I was a little off."

Sora reassured her, "Don't worry about it, Kairi! I missed it by a mile on my second adventure, and this is just your first time here!"

Namine pointed out,_ "That was your third adventure. Castle Oblivion happened before that."_

"Apparently. _I_ sure don't remember going to any place called Castle Oblivion." Donald shrugged.

"Hence the name," Kairi pointed out. "Plus, Namine says she was involved. Your memories were affected by her powers."

_"It's regrettable, but given how your time there is tied to the fake memories I implanted in Sora, it would take a long time sleeping in the pods to sort it out so you could remember everything, even though you've stabilized from the last time you needed them."_

Donald gave the prospect a hard pass. "No thanks! I'm never getting in another of those pods. No way, no how!"

"Yeah, what he said!" Goofy and Sora added simultaneously.

Jiminy Cricket hopped out of Sora's hair to get everyone back on task. "We're here looking for Hercules, isn't that right? How do you suppose we can find him?"

Sora decided, "Let's just get to the top of the mountain for now. Even if the Colosseum isn't up there, or if it is and Herc isn't in the Games right now, we'd be able to see the whole world from that high up!"

"And how would we pick out Hercules from that far away?" Kairi asked.

Goofy answered, "Just look for smoke, fire, giant monsters, that sorta thing. Herc's a true hero, so he'll be wherever trouble is!"

_"Good point."_

"Onward and upward, then!" Sora pointed the way up the trail, Jiminy nestled back into his invincible hair, and the journey began.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Defeat the Heartless!_

Of course, they hadn't gone fifteen steps into a wide natural tunnel before the usual adversaries showed up. There were quite a few enemies for a first encounter, but the varieties were fairly bog-standard: ten _Soldiers_, six _Air Soldiers_ (which were wearing purple instead of brown today, for some reason), twelve _Shadows_, and three _Large Bodies_.

Goofy repelled a leaping Shadow and a spin-kicking Soldier with his shield, then proceeded to gather all the Soldiers into his signature Goofy Tornado move. "Wow, what a crowd! There seem to be more of 'em hanging around than usual."

"Something bad must be happening! Freeze!" As the Royal Magician of Disney Castle, Donald took pride in his customized spells, and he'd come up with some new variants for this new adventure. His Donald Blizzard acted more like a snowy shotgun spread than a normal Blizzard's single penetrating bullet. It froze several Air Soldiers into Heartlessicles, grounding them and leaving them easy prey for Sora's Keyblade. A Donald Thunder spell then surrounded Goofy and his victims with a sphere of arcing lightning, making the Soldiers zap each other and pop while leaving Goofy unharmed.

Sora kept whacking away. "Geez, I really have lost a lot of strength. I should've pasted these small fries in one hit." Although it took more than one hit to beat each Heartless, Sora's swordplay wasn't lacking in skill; he'd learned a lot about fighting over the last year and a half. He just didn't have the power to use most of the flashier moves he'd invented anymore.

Luckily, he'd retained his all-important abilities to Dodge Roll, block, and Air Slide. Unluckily, he'd lost access to all of the Drive Forms his Very Special Outfit had gathered. Even Valor Form wasn't working, and that was the one that came with the outfit!

"Well, if you all you need is strength training, then beating up Heartless is what worked for me! Aeroga!" Kairi swept the three Large Bodies into the air with a swirl of wind, and she would've juggled them longer, but all of them popped when the miniature storm burst.

_"Sora, look out! Shadows behind you!"_ Thanks to Namine's warning, Sora repelled the sneak attack. It took him two hits to beat even a Shadow, but he kept getting more enemies with his combo and kept them all locked down until they popped.

All the Heartless were finally beaten. "Wow, Kairi, you really have gotten strong! I don't think we've ever taken one of those big ones out in one hit before!" Goofy complimented while he wiped his brow.

"I've gotta catch up..." Sora mumbled to himself.

Kairi giggled. "'Catch up'? Sora, I've seen you fighting at full power before. Once you've got your strength back, you're going to be _way_ stronger than me. You've just got to keep moving forward."

Sora grinned his sunny Sora-grin. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Kairi. Speaking of forward, though..." The path dead-ended at a huge statue of some bearded guy in a dress - er, toga. Judging by the offerings of food and Hercules action figures that had been left at his feet, the statue probably depicted a god of some sort. But anyway, the only way further up the mountain would be to scale the sheer cliffs around the shrine. "Oh, I know! Watch this, guys!"

Sora ran straight at the lowest wall. Without slowing down, he put his giant shoes against the vertical surface, and his whole body was surrounded in a sparkling blue aura as he ran up the wall and flipped over the top. "I learned this in the Sleeping Worlds! Neku called it 'Flowmotion'. You use the mana of the world around you instead of your own to move around really fast. You can Super-Dash, Super-Jump, Rail Slide, all sorts of things. It only works if you kick off something solid first, though. And this isn't a dream, so I can't just jump up the same wall as many times as I want. I'll still need a bit more power before I can grab enough mana to Super-Jump even once, actually."

"That's so cool! I didn't learn that in the Training Worlds! Let me try!" Kairi mimicked Sora's actions and (after falling on her butt a couple times) managed to pull it off.

"Neato! I guess you didn't lose _all_ your power, Sora!" Goofy was suddenly standing behind him, along with Donald.

Sora's jaw dropped. "How did you - what did you - when did you-"

"Oh, that? We do that all the time!" Goofy nonchalantly waved off the mention of his ability to teleport to Sora's position.

"You mean you _just_ noticed?" Donald scoffed, having popped over at the same time as Goofy.

"Hey, I'm just a human, not a duck or dog or mouse or cat-bear-thing from Disney Town. I can't just _do_ things just because it'd be funny." Sora ran up a couple more walls and found a tunnel back to the slopes of the mountain; Kairi followed suit.

_"It's pretty strange from our perspective, yes. It's super useful, though! We won't have to worry about keeping pace with each other in rough terrain like this," _Namine pointed out.

"We're pretty high up now," Goofy noted, once again appearing behind Sora.

"But there's no sign of Hercules," Donald added.

Sora decided to just shout as loud as he could to try and get the true hero's attention. "HEEEEY! HERCULES! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

A new disembodied voice joined the conversation. _"Hmm...I know I dotted my I's, crossed my T's, zeroed the hero...so who in Greece would be calling that blockhead's name?"_

Hades, local god of the Underworld, appeared in front of the party with a puff of fiery smoke. "Oh, geez Louise. It's you? What are _you_ here for, runts?"

Sora declared, "We have to ask Hercules something! But if you're up to no good again, then we're also here to stop you!"

"Gee, so sorry, I don't have time to play with you today. I am running on a _tight_ schedule right now. Gotta get everything arranged for next week." Hades started walking away. "Once the planets align, I'll have Titans to jailbreak, thrones to steal, worlds to conquer. You know how it goes."

"We won't let you do any of that!" Sora readied his Keyblade and ran in for an attack.

Before he reached his target, Hades scowled and whirled around. His skin and flaming hair turned from blue to red as he did so. "Kiddo, you are TICKING. ME. OFF! Get off my case already!" With one swing of his arm and a liberal application of godly strength, Hades sent a gale-force wind to blow Sora away. The rest of the team was also caught in the gust, which sent them flying off the mountain and out into the distance. Hades cooled back down to blue. "Have a nice trip! Don't forget to write! There, that sent them sailing." Then he realized something. "...Sailing right to where I left...eh, no problem. With all the Heartless I sent out to keep Irkules busy, those kids are done for even if they stick the landing. I mean, what could go wrong?"

Hades was asking himself a rhetorical question, but someone answered anyway:_"You truly have no idea...how much has already gone wrong."_ A Dark Corridor opened and admitted a rather short stranger in a Black Coat.

Hades hadn't had any personal dealings with Organization XIII, but he recognized their get-up well enough. "Oh really, now? And I suppose you're here to do something about it?"

"Indeeeeed. Our schedule has been unexpectedly pushed forward, so we require that you get a head start as well." The stranger summoned a weapon - a Keyblade, no doubt about it. Hades decided not to question the potential Trojan-ness of this gift horse...

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Team Riku's POV] The Realm of Darkness: Lower Level..._

"I wasn't expecting things to go wrong so fast!" Upon landing in the Realm of Darkness, Riku and his teammates, Lambda and Mickey, were immediately set upon by no less than five stacked-up swarms of Shadows called _Demon Towers_. On top of being multiple A-tier threats, they seemed significantly more aggressive than Heartless fought elsewhere. They were pretty easy to fight, but not so easy to finish off, and their attacks were all out of sync with each other, which kept everyone dodging too much to strike back often.

"At least we can see the floor this time. It was all pitch black the last time we were in the Realm of Darkness." Lambda hopped away from a Demon Tower's lunge, then jumped to get clear of a gathering swarm of Shadows that tried to form another Tower under her feet. "Protect Option! Everyone gather up!" As soon as Mickey and Riku reached her, Lambda activated the hexagon-barrier bubble generated by her shield-shaped Option drone. "There, that should give us some breathing room."

"Speaking of breathing, can air get through this shield?" Riku asked. It was a pretty impressive barrier, to be sure. The Demon Towers kept smacking their formations against it, but they barely left a dent in the sphere, and the dents fixed themselves so quickly that the Heartless were unlikely to ever get all the way through.

Lambda realized, "Um...no. No, it can't. So we've got a couple minutes at most before I'll have to lower the shield, or you two will probably pass out."

Riku huffed. "Have I mentioned recently how unfair it is that you can survive in space just because you're a Murakumo Unit? Sorry, I meant Event Conver-something or other."

Lambda supplied, "'Event Convergence Moderator', dear. And I don't think you've ever griped about that particular bonus before. Come to think of it, I'm not sure air matters in the Realm of Darkness. Time itself is a non-concept here."

"Sorry, dear. I think I'm just mad at these Heartless...and myself. I just finished beating up a bunch of Xehanorts, so I kinda felt invincible. Who'd have thought plain old Shadows could be this tough?"

"We _are_ on their home turf right now," Mickey pointed out. "There are a lot of weaker Heartless here, too, but also some that are stronger than anything you'd ever find in the Realm of Light."

_"We need a plan for this," _Replica put in._ "Our attacks can't get out of this barrier any more than theirs can get in, so we need to be ready before Lambda drops the shield."_

"Leave it to me!" Mickey started charging Light for one of his unique, massive spells.

Lambda grinned. "Oh, this is going to be so cheap. Ready when you are, Your Majesty!"

"Almost there...now!" Lambda dropped the barrier right as Mickey's glowing aura reached a crescendo. "LIGHT!" The Demon Towers rushed in immediately, only to be burned away to nothing by the blast of Light that swept out from King Mickey.

Lambda reported, "All targets terminated. Do you think we can just do that every time?"

Mickey shook his head. "No, I'll need a lot of rest if I use that spell too often. I'll let you know when I'm ready for another blast."

_"I'll handle the next group, then; just stay back,"_ Replica volunteered. Even without a body of his own, he could project an image of himself near Riku and use powerful Darkness-based attacks. His "Dark Burst" in particular worked just like Mickey's charged Light blast, but only Riku was immune to it, so his allies had to keep their distance.

"Sounds like a plan. But which way do we go?"

"Hmm..." Mickey looked left, then right, then narrowed his eyes at something far off. "She's this way! I can track Aqua by following her Light."

"Huh, I wonder what Light smells like," Riku mused. He'd mastered the ability to track Darkness by scent, after all.

Mickey gave Riku a weird look. "Uh, Riku? Light isn't something you _smell_. It's something you _see_."

Riku blinked, then facepalmed. "...Oh. Duh! Now I feel stupid. I guess being a Keyblade Master doesn't mean I'm already perfect, huh?"

"Master Aqua could probably write a book about that...but only if we save her! Let's go!" Mickey dashed ahead, quickly vanishing around a corner among the twisting stone tunnels and bridges of the Realm of Darkness.

Riku slumped over. "Aaand there he goes. Again. Why can't I hold an adventuring party together like Sora does?"

Lambda reached up to hug him around the shoulders. "Because you're not Sora, dear. I personally prefer _you_ over the friendship maniac."

Replica chimed in, _"I'm certainly not going anywhere, either. But how do we track them now? At this rate, we'll have to save both Aqua and Mickey!"_

Lambda pulled away from Riku and stared down the tunnel Mickey took. "Don't worry, I've got that covered. Scanning...3 sources of the Power of Light found. Target 1 is...target lost. That must have been Kingdom Hearts - imagine that! Anyway...Target 2 is still moving toward Target 3. Relevant targets locked on. Follow me, and stay close. We can't let the Realm of Darkness separate us any more than it already has!"

"Got it." Riku held Lambda's hand as they ran. Just to be sure. "This really is just like old times."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Team Roxas' POV] Radiant Garden: Ansem's Computer Room..._

"Just like old times, eh, Roxas? Standing around in a big, metal-walled room with Xion, waiting for orders. It's like we never left the Organization." Lea crossed his arms behind his head and leaned against a big red device that looked like it could digitize him at any moment.

Xion replied for Roxas, "Yep! I'm even getting the same frosty looks from the other members." She remained stubbornly cheery, but changed the slogan on her magic T-shirt to say, "_I Came Back From Retroactive Nonexistence For __This__?_"

"We get it already," Dilan griped.

Lea asked, "Speaking of frosty, where's Even? I kind of expected him to have the worst reaction to me."

Everyone got really quiet.

"What? Is there something on my face? Did my tattoos come back?"

"I think something bad happened to Even," Roxas stage-whispered in his ear.

"Yes, it did." Ienzo spoke up without taking his eyes off the main screen. "He reappeared here with the rest of us, but he took the longest to reawaken. I took my eyes off him for a few minutes to confirm the castle's security, and when I came back, he was gone. I suspect Xehanort and his, er, Darknesses may have taken Even with them."

Roxas guessed, "Xehanort must need Even's help with the Replicas he's using."

Ienzo nodded. "That would make a great deal of sense. He might be an insufferable blowhard at times...well, most of the time...but Even truly was the most brilliant scientist among us, especially at both biology and robotics. Even Xehanort wouldn't be able to make sense of the blueprints for Vexen's masterpiece without assistance from the man himself."

"Speaking of Replicas, how did you know I'm one?" Xion asked. "You even knew how I died, even though you died, like, a month before that. Terminated, whatever."

Ienzo blinked. "That's a valid point. I can only surmise that Namine must be working hard even right now to keep us all up to date."

_*Ding dong ding dong. Dong ding ding dong!*_

A series of chimes played from a speaker in the ceiling. Ienzo gestured to Aeleus. "Ah, that must be Chip and Dale! Could you show them inside?"

Aeleus and Dilan nodded and left the room.

Lea stood up straighter. "Chip and Dale? What are they doing here?"

Ienzo became somewhat smug. "Aside from helping Cid repair the Gummi Ship that crashed in the town square, they recently claimed to have finished a working model of a new kind of handheld computer that can communicate with other such devices between different worlds. I've been helping them with some back-end software issues. But enough about that from me; you should see our masterpiece for yourselves!"

The chipmunks in question then scampered around the corner. "Ta-daaah! It's your favorite Gummi engineers here: Chip..."

"...And Dale! Here to unveil our latest invention:"

"GUMMIPHONES!"

...The chipmunks were too small to hide any inventions on their fuzzy personages, but Aeleus and Dilan had that covered. They wheeled in a huge, rolling suitcase and unzipped the flap to reveal that it was filled to bursting with colorful, chunky devices. Each red-and-black Gummiphone had a blank screen taking up most of the front side, a camera lens at the top of the front and back sides, one big button on the bottom of the front with Mickey's royal symbol on it, and a slider on one side for volume control. A golden crown design framed the top half of the device and disguised the state-of-the-art antenna that allowed it to communicate across worlds.

Chip chattered, "We made enough for everyone! Everyone in the Restoration Committee, everyone fighting Xehanort, all of the old wizards and fairies, and all of Ansem's apprentices! You get a Gummiphone! And _you_ get a Gummiphone! EVERYONE GETS A GUMMIPHONE! Now we just need to hand them out!"

Roxas reached into the suitcase and picked up a Gummiphone for himself. "Wow, you're just letting us have them for free?"

Dale nodded enthusiastically. "Yeppers!"

Chip added, "We really don't need your munny. His Majesty pays us _way_ too much!"

Xion chuckled as she picked up a Gummiphone of her own. "He would."

Lea was already fiddling with the settings and pre-installed apps on his phone. "This is really thorough! We've got an app for setting up text chats in various threads, a camera that - whoa, it takes pictures from the front, too!" He grinned and took his first selfie before continuing, "...And of course it can make video calls..." He set up a call, and after Roxas and Xion clicked a pop-up, he appeared on their screens, creating a jarring echo effect as he continued talking. "There's a huge archive of all the crazy stuff that's happened to everyone, data on the Heartless, a copy of Jiminy's Journal - hey, that one's already up to date! We'd better let Namine know she doesn't need to keep copying and pasting our memories around."

Roxas scratched his head. "That would be easier to do if she had a phone already."

Ienzo sighed. "Please don't use the Gummiphone to call someone when you're standing right next to them; it's poor phone etiquette. Anyway, it will take me some time to analyze Ansem's Code. If you want to make yourselves useful, you can hand the rest of the phones out. Unfortunately, we ex-apprentices are confined to this world for the time being because we can no longer create Dark Corridors, so we'll have to rely on you to issue Gummiphones to the other Guardians of Light."

"Sure thing!" Xion created another Gate Between to take everyone to Olympus Colosseum while Roxas grabbed the suitcase's handle. "Let's track down Team Sora first, so Namine can focus on other things."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Team Sora's POV] Thebes: Agora..._

Team Sora was a tangled mess of limbs, having been sent flying through the air. They passed the transit time the same way most people would in their situation: by screaming their lungs out.

"WAAAAAAAAAAK!"

"WOO-HOO-HOO-HOO...!"

_"AH-CHOO!"_

"Wait, Namine, how can you even sneeze-"

"No time! We're gonna crash!"

Sora covered his eyes and braced himself to break about a hundred bones...but before he could experience a fatal impact with the city of Thebes, he was caught around one leg. He opened his eyes to see Hercules, who had caught Sora and Goofy before they could hit the ground. The hero held Sora up at eye level and grinned. "Long time no see! You okay, Sora?"

Sora grinned back. "Sure am, Herc! I was actually looking for you, but then we ran into Hades instead."

Goofy added, "And he sent us flyin' right here! Talk about a lucky break!"

Jiminy, who was hanging from one of Sora's hair spikes, realized, "Wait, where's Donald? And Kairi?"

_"Up here!"_ Kairi's voice echoed. Donald was hanging by his hands from the bicep of a giant statue of Hercules. His outfit had gained a pink, stripey pattern - Kairi had fused with him and given him Heart Form so he'd survive the fall. Now that they'd landed, Kairi separated from him and reappeared, balancing on one of Herc's literally sculpted muscles. She picked Donald up and slid to the ground by sticking to the statue's side with Flowmotion. "Hah! Stuck the landing!"

"Thanks, Kairi! I thought I was a goner!" Donald extricated himself from Kairi's arms and brushed himself off.

Herc set Sora and Goofy down. "Nice moves! You're definitely no ordinary damsel in distress! Kairi, was it? Are you traveling with these three now?"

Kairi beamed. "You have no idea how gratifying it is to hear that. I'm Sora's girlfriend..." Sora turned red and couldn't look her in the eye, "...and I'm going to keep saying we love each other until he stops acting like he doesn't know that I know he knows I know. I spent a long time training to stop getting kidnapped so often, both over the whole Princess of Heart thing and because Sora likes me back. It kinda makes me a target for villains with grudges against him, but he's totally worth the trouble!" She grabbed his hand and snuggled into his side.

Hercules laughed heartily. "Heh, I don't hear a story like yours often! If every damsel reacted to distress like you, I'd be out of a job!"

Sora remembered why they'd come here. "Speaking of jobs, we've got another problem to deal with. You remember those Organization XIII guys from the last time I was here? I thought I beat them all, but their boss came back somehow. He's got, like, half of a new group of sub-villains already, so he's back to causing trouble. And to make matters worse, I lost most of my power the last time I fought him, including something called the Power of Waking that I need to save someone important."

"...Huh. Can't say I understand all of it, but it sounds like you've got your hero work cut out for you!"

"Yeah. So, we wanted to ask..."

***BOOM!***

A nearby building exploded, and a bunch of Heartless wreathed in fire flew out. Herc rushed toward the scene. "Sorry, Sora, we've got to put this conversation on hold until we save the city!"

Donald summoned his staff. "We'll help out! We're real heroes too, after all!"

Goofy summoned his shield and posed alongside Donald. "Yeah! Really real this time, a-hyuck!"

"Great! You guys head that way and protect anyone who hasn't evacuated yet!" Herc dashed to the rescue of the people trapped under rubble on the east side of town, and Team Sora rushed off to the west.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Team Roxas' POV] Olympus Colosseum: Entrance_

Team Roxas appeared right at the gates of the Colosseum - no mistakes, no getting lost.

"Been awhile since I was here!" Lea stretched his arms out. "The Organization occasionally sent members out to keep the Games interesting. I heard they were gonna send you next, Roxas, but then...you know."

Xion gazed out the gates and down the mountain. "Wow, we can see the whole world from up here! Hey, look! That town's on fire! I bet that's where Sora would be!" The town in question was nearby, but it was not the town at the base of this specific mountain. Team Sora had been _way_ off target; their mountain didn't even have a town right at the base.

"Then off we go! Last one there buys the next ice cream!" Roxas gripped the suitcase's handle and blasted off at light speed. Xion equipped her "Sonic Blade" sword and wings to fly. Lea turned into fire and teleported repeatedly.

Roxas made it there first, followed by Lea, with Xion pulling up the rear. Lea leaned against the gates of Thebes. "Man, those wings of yours are really slow, Xion! At least after the ramming is over."

"Yeah. I guess the next round of ice cream's on me. In the meantime, let's try to find Sora."

A new voice called from above, "Aw, not more black-hooded goons!" An immaculately groomed white stallion with wings swooped down from above, and two riders got off: a shapely woman in a purple toga-dress-thing, and a tiny, fat satyr wearing nothing but his own fur.

Roxas stuttered, "W-wait! We're not with Organization XIII! We're just here to give Sora something!"

Lea waved. "Phil! Long time no see! You probably forgot about that time I competed in the Games, eh?"

The woman asked, "So Sora's here, too? That's welcome news. I'm Megara, by the way. I guess you could call me a supporter of Hercules. Wonderboy's strong, but he can't be all over town at once. The Heartless are just everywhere today!"

"If that's all you're here for, I saw some kind of fighting on the west side of town. And I saw a very specific, Hercules kind of fighting in the east. I bet Sora's off thataway." Phil pointed the direction the visitors should go. "Before you go, I've got two words of advice for you: Don't. Make. Trouble!" The locals remounted Pegasus and took off to the east before anyone could correct Phil's word count.

Lea realized, "Wait, what the heck are we chasing after them for? I have my Summon Shard!" He hefted the red, star-shaped Gummi Block that hung around his neck and concentrated on Kairi.

A translucent image of Kairi appeared next to him. "Whoa! It's nice to see you again, Lea, but I'm kind of in the middle of a battle, so I can't really split my attention for long! What do you need?"

Lea held up a phone. "Tell Sora we've got gifts for everyone. This Gummiphone could be yours for the low, low price of getting back to the town gate in one piece!"

"Neat! I'll be sure to pass that - AAH!" Something hit Kairi at her actual location, dispelling the Summon Shard's effect and causing her image in front of Lea to vanish.

"Uh-oh! I hope I didn't screw things up for them too badly."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Team Sora's POV] Thebes: Temple District..._

_Defeat the Heartless and save the townsfolk!_

With her attention split, Kairi mis-aimed her attempt to block an arrow fired from a _Bizarre Archer_, which - despite the name - was not exactly bizarre. It was simply a bow-wielding bipedal Heartless, as one would expect. The lucky arrow grazed past Kairi's Keyblade and embedded itself in her arm, causing a yelp of pain and forcing her to stop Lea's summoning.

_Well, better my arm than the citizens'._ Kairi gave the mother and child huddled behind her a reassuring smile, and then began to glow. "Sora! Use my power!" She vanished, leaving the arrow and wound behind, to power Sora up with Heart Form.

Sora's clothes gained pink criss-crossed stripes over the black parts, and the emblem of Kingdom Hearts appeared on his shoulders. A pink halo winked into existence over his head, and pink sparkles danced in the air around him. Most importantly, Kairi's Keyblade appeared in Sora's left hand, allowing him to dual-wield it alongside his own Keyblade. He also felt a surge of power welling up inside him, temporarily replacing the strength he'd lost.

Before he could get embarrassed over this Form's color scheme, Sora launched himself into combat. He had some experience dual-wielding from his previous adventures, so he picked up the basics of fighting in Heart Form quite fast. Unlike Valor Form, this Form didn't hinder his magic or his ability to block, and in fact slightly empowered both tactics. And when another Bizarre Archer let an arrow fly at him, he even surprised Kairi by teleporting behind the attacker, reappearing with a burst of pink Light that damaged the target.

On a whim, he began simply teleporting repeatedly, and it worked; these enemies were on the weak side, and they were easily destroyed by an effect that was meant to merely knock them off-balance. "Cool, is this the Growth Ability for Heart Form? I lost the special movement abilities my other Forms used to give me, so it'd be nice to learn some new ones."

All too soon, Heart Form ended and Kairi reappeared. Luckily, Sora had already beaten the Heartless. "I think so. I'll call that move 'Blink.'"

Standing on the sidelines, Goofy pointed out, "Gawrsh, that'll get awkward if anyone says 'Nobody blink!'"

Beside him, Donald yanked the camera down to his level. (Hey, stop doing that!) "Don't listen to Goofy! It sounds great!"

Sora waved to the civilians - chalk up two more saves for the post-Junior Heroes! "Anyway, you two are safe now! For now, try to get out of town as soon as you can, okay?"

"Thank you! But I was kind of expecting Hercules, not a random batch of kids and...whatever you two are."

"Grr...mph!" Goofy held Donald down and clamped his beak shut before he could make any snappy remarks at the ungrateful citizens, who finally fled the area.

Sora sighed and looked around for more trouble. "I think that's the last of them-" _*Rrrrumble...* _"Or not." A nearby temple shuddered and began to collapse, only to be held up by something - probably something called Hercules. He sure cleaned up his side of town fast! "Let's check it out!"

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Defeat all of the Heartless and save the people before the temple collapses!_

Having heard the voice of Kingdom Hearts summing up the situation, Kairi ignored the sight of Hercules holding up a half-collapsed roof on his shoulders. Instead, she skipped straight to bisecting a few _Flame Cores_, which were like a Pureblood version of the various types of flying spellcaster Heartless.

Speaking of which, a nearby _Vermillion Samba_ summoned a glyph to start rapid-firing fireballs at Kairi, but Donald caught it in a vortex with Donald Aero before it could finish casting. Before the monster could settle, Goofy whacked it with his shield. Pop!

Meanwhile, Kairi and Sora kept cutting down Shadows and Flame Cores. Sora compensated for being unable to one-shot the enemies by casting Water, which was a new spell he'd learned on his way back from hugging his Dream Eaters. When the spell was cast, a shield of water briefly surrounded Sora before gathering into a watery ball and arcing toward his target. Dousing the Flame Cores with magic water prevented them from catching themselves on fire and zooming around to crash into people, making the battle much easier.

In less than a minute, Team Sora cleared a path for the civilians to escape the collapsing temple. The whole place collapsed behind them as everyone filed out...everyone except Hercules.

Kairi reached toward the rubble ineffectually. "Oh, no! Is he okay?"

One of the townspeople answered, "You think Hercules could be beaten by _that? _He got a bigger building dropped on him just last week!"

Sure enough, Herc rose triumphantly from the rubble. "Thanks for the help, guys. Is everyone okay?" A chorus of affirmatives answered him as the civilians fled toward the agora. "Good! Looks like another day is saved!"

_"Whoa, let's not be too hasty there, 'hero'!"_

Sora groaned, "Ugh, not Xigbar again!" Sure enough, the one-eyed sniper appeared from a Dark Corridor.

"Well, if it isn't Hercules! An undefeated warrior! A savior of the people! A true hero! But you couldn't have accomplished any of that if you were just any old dude. You've got friends in high places...or should I say family? How's dear old dad treating you?"

"Wow, what a friendly guy. Sora, you say you know this creep?" Herc then addressed Xigbar directly. "Sure, my strength is more than just the result of training. I have a lot to thank my dad for. But before I got Phil to train me, my strength was more of a curse than a blessing. I was a walking disaster area before, but now I'm, well, a hero! So I don't want you going around saying that putting in the hard work is a waste of time. All the power in the world is useless without the effort and will to shape it into something better."

Xigbar just smirked wider; he always seemed to be either smirking or scowling, and today was a smirking day. "Oh, I'm well aware. I'm just saying, you'd better check up on Thy Heavenly Father, because there are some other big names already heading over there to shake things up..." Xigbar vanished as smoothly as he'd entered.

Herc hesitated for a moment. "Why would he go to the trouble of warning us? Doesn't he want the bad guys to win?"

Kairi replied, "No, his group has a very specific battle they want to set up and play out in a very specific way, and for that, they need our side to be strong, but frazzled. He's trying to toughen us up, and this whole world is just collateral damage."

"Well, he'd better stay gone, then, because I have some things to say to him about that...right after I save Olympus." Hercules whistled sharply through his fingers, and Pegasus heeded the call to come pick him up, already bearing Phil and Meg. "Sorry, but there isn't any more room. I'll meet you up on Mount Olympus!"

"His dad lives on Mount Olympus?"

Goofy followed Pegasus' path with his eyes, and realized, "Hey, that's the same mountain we were on before!"

Donald groaned, "Now we have to climb back up?"

_"Well, we were going to have to go back that way anyway. Team Roxas has some gifts for us by the town gate. Hopefully they also kept the townsfolk safe."_

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Team Roxas' POV] Agora..._

Team Roxas had indeed kept the area secure. Sora was greeted by a few familiar waves from townspeople he'd personally saved, and no one seemed overly torn up about the town being exploded. Apparently this was a regular happenstance in Thebes.

Sora received his Gummiphone - and immediately dropped it while trying to turn it on. Even Roxas wasn't quite as technologically inept as Sora.

In contrast, Kairi got her phone and immediately set up a chatroom labeled "Exploration Log". She took a selfie of herself and the crowd and typed in a few lines of text and "hashtags" so her post could be searched out later. "This is fun! Anyway, we've still got things to do. See you around, Roxas, Xion, Lea!"

Xion waved as she herded the other two around a corner where the locals wouldn't see her opening a Gate Between (but showing off the Gummiphones was okay?). "See you soon! Next stop: um... Okay, how are we ever going to get these to Team Riku?"

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_GummiNet chatroom: Exploration Log..._

Kairi: Just got my Gummiphone after a bit of hero work! The town's kind of wrecked, but everyone's safe! Next stop: Mount Olympus! #TeamSora #Olympus #Kairi #TechnophobeSora #SoraDonaldGoofy

Lea: haha, sora can't use a phone? #predictable #gotitmemorized

Lea: sorry, can't chat, xion wants me to stay focused on #teamriku #deliveryboy #realmofdarkness #gotitmemorized

DonaldDuck: are u going to use #gotitmemorized in every post?! #overused

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_A/N: I'm planning for there to be a short chatroom exchange at the end of most chapters. Team Riku will get much more screentime in the next chapter._


	3. Uncharted Depths

**Clear Skies**

**Chapter 3: Uncharted Depths**

**-"The Realm of Darkness Is Most Forbidden."-**

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_A/N: What's that, The Mighty Gyarapie? You want more of Team Riku exploring the Realm of Darkness? Titano Man XIII, you want more action? Here you go!_

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Team Riku's POV] Realm of Darkness: Mid Level: Cave of Return..._

Lambda blinked. "'_Cave of Return_'? Wouldn't it make more sense to have a 'Cave of _No_ Return'?"

"Guess we'll find out when we get inside." Riku gestured at the massive cavern mouth they'd come across. Somehow, the interior of the cave was even darker than the rest of the Realm, so they couldn't see what was inside from this far away. "I hope your scans are right about this, because my nose isn't any good here - it's _all_ Darkness."

Lambda nodded. "Mickey's definitely past here, which means he must have gotten through the cave somehow...unless the Realm of Darkness put the cave here specifically to block us."

Replica pointed out, _"Nothing to do but dive in, then. Or are you two scared of the dark?"_

"Not anymore." Riku squinted as he pushed into the dark cave. Literally pushed; it turned out the blackness was just a thin membrane across the entrance, and he passed right through it with just a little effort, dragging Lambda with him by the hand.

Inside, the walls were covered with a new kind of Heartless. They had the appearance of spindly, writhing black tentacles with purple veins, ending in bony hands that constantly grasped at nothing. They had no eyes or any indications of a face.

Lambda scanned the new enemy as usual. "Scanning: Pureblood Heartless confirmed. Target ID: _Grasper_. This cave contains 150 individual targets. Individual threat level: D. Odd... it seems like they're connected to a big boss-level Heartless, like the Leechgrave and its Tentaclaws...but I can't pinpoint where it is. Let's just clear 'em out for now."

Team Riku got down to business, clearing a path through the Graspers. When anyone approached, the Heartless limbs would whip toward their prey and try to grab on, but Riku and Lambda were too quick for them. One slash was all it took to sever the hands, which disintegrated immediately. Unfortunately, there was no way further into the cave on the other side of the crowd.

"Is this a dead end? WHOA!" A previously defeated Grasper sprang back up beneath Lambda and grabbed her around the waist. It swung her back and forth a couple times, so Riku grabbed her hand as soon as he could. He couldn't free her from the Heartless' grasp before they were both dragged down into a hole of Darkness that formed at its base, though...

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_The Realm of Light: Radiant Garden: Town Square..._

_"WHOA - OOMPH!"_ Riku and Lambda found themselves sprawled out in the middle of the town square, right where they'd entered the Realm of Darkness in the first place. The patch of Darkness that had spit them out shrank away to nothing, while remaining as solid as the tile it had covered.

Lambda got to her feet, looked around, and groaned in annoyance. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me! So _that's_ what it meant by 'Cave of Return'? Maybe the cave itself was the big Heartless, and we just walked right into its mouth."

Riku rubbed his sore head. "It's kind of an ego boost that the Realm of Darkness sees us as a big enough threat to kick us out rather than trapping us...but this is a serious problem. Mickey's still trapped down there, isn't he?"

"Scanning...target not found. Therefore, I choose to believe he's still alright down there. Remember, Aqua was trapped down there and stayed unchanged for a decade. That's no reason to drag our feet on bringing them back, though!"

"Whoa, whoa, hold your horses, guys!" Lea shouted from behind them. "Before you have another go at the Realm of Darkness, at least take these with you!" He held out a pair of Gummiphones as Riku and Lambda ran over to him.

Riku turned the device over in his hands. "What's this?"

"Neat! We get smartphones!" Lambda switched hers on and started thumbing through the settings straight away. "I guess they're called Gummiphones. Don't worry, Lea, I got it memorized. Personal-area network established. Now I can stream all the Gummiphone's functions right to my eyes! Augmented reality for the win!"

Roxas commented as he caught up with Lea, "Whoa, lucky! It's kind of tricky to type on that tiny screen."

Xion joined them. "It just takes practice. Too bad Mickey doesn't have one; we could've used it to tell him to...er, come get one."

Riku flinched. "Oh, right! Mickey's still down there!"

"Oh, he is, is he? Lemme try something..." Lea gripped his Summon Shard, and a semi-transparent King Mickey appeared in front of him. "Great, it worked!"

Mickey looked down at his summoned self for a moment, then flinched. "Guys, now's not really the time, I'm kinda fightin' a giant Heartless...wait, what're ya doin' back there?!"

Lambda told him, "The Realm of Darkness literally spit us out. If you commit to the summoning, you can come here and we can give it another try. Quick, before you lose focus!"

"Okay, I'll give it a shot." Mickey closed his eyes and concentrated as his image turned solid. "Ah, there we go!"

Xion handed him a Gummiphone. "Here you go, Your Majesty: one Gummiphone, mint condition, batteries fully charged. With this, we can keep in touch next time you guys end up getting separated."

Mickey set up his profile and pocketed the Gummiphone. "Thanks, fellas! Now that that's settled, are you two...er, three...ready to try again?"

Lambda nodded. "Affirmative."

Riku grinned. "Just say the word, Mickey."

_"Bring it on!"_

"Then let's get back in there!"

Riku opened the portal again, and they jumped in before Lea could point out, "Maybe you should bring along some Potions this time aaand they're gone."

Roxas shrugged. "No big deal. They'll come back if they need to. Anyway, that's the toughest set of deliveries out of the way! What now? Should we head back and check on Ansem's Code?"

Lea shook his head. "No, Ienzo would've texted us if he'd found anything significant."

A new voice called from a side street, _"Hey guys, long couple-of-hours no see!"_

"Who's there?" Roxas called back.

Hazama grinned from right behind him. "Aw, don't tell me you forgot to give a Gummiphone to your friend Hazama! Anyway, these things are pretty sweet. They've got all the bells and whistles, and an extra-crisp 4K camera! It's kinda bulky, and not exactly cutting-edge compared to the phones Dr. Kokopuffs used to whip up, but it'll do." He flipped a Gummiphone around in his hand a few times and pocketed it.

Xion gawked at him. "When did you..."

"You left the suitcase unattended, so I helped myself. Really, you should've expected that much from me by now! As for why I'm here, I found a couple of the Organization's members stalking around nearby worlds. Here, I'll pull up the map."

Hazama snatched Xion's phone and brought up a display of the World Map before she could protest. He pointed at two of the worlds in the same cluster as Olympus. "Xehanort's mini-me was skulking around 'Toy Box' over _here_, making dimensional anomalies and other weirdness. Meanwhile, some fabulous pink-haired fellow and his scythe-wielding Nobody minions are stalking young girls over in the outskirts of 'Kingdom of Corona' over _here_."

Lea groaned. "Ugh, looks like Marluxia's at it again. Let's go after him first. I still owe that guy an assassination, after all."

"Okay, then let's go. Thanks for the info, Hazama!" Roxas opened a Gate Between (having read up on how to do so while the rest of Team Kairi was busy training) and led the way through.

"There they go. Now that I've got my merit badge for the day, I think I'll hit up that new restaurant in Twilight Town. A fancy place like that had better at _least _have hard-boiled eggs on the menu. Ah, it's been way too long..." Hazama left through a Corridor of Darkness before Aeleus could come patrolling around the corner and find him.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Team Sora's POV] Olympus: Mount Olympus..._

Team Sora's trek back up Mount Olympus was easy enough. The only things barring their path were a few sets of Heartless, including some _Water Cores_ (basically Flame Cores for the water element) that had taken over the nearby rivers and waterfalls to try and wash the heroes away. Beating the Heartless brought the flow back down to normal, but it took some trial and error to find out that the Water Cores were weakest against Fire magic for some reason. Unless Donald, Sora, or Kairi hit them with a fireball to evaporate the water bubbles surrounding them, they could teleport away from physical attacks.

_"But why Fire...?"_ Namine wondered.

Goofy scratched his head. "Gawrsh, I dunno."

"Doesn't matter! If it works, it works!" Donald got back to casting.

Sora, meanwhile, was deep in the beating-up-Heartless zone and didn't even notice the conversation. "Fire! Fire! Take this! Hah! Gotcha!"

They were about halfway up the mountain, just past the last scraggly tree they'd reached before, when the Rock Titan attacked. Its roar alerted Team Sora to the threat waiting near the mountain's peak.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Defeat the Rock Titan!_

Donald yelped, "Wak! What's _that_ thing doing here?!"

Sora recalled, "Didn't we beat him at the Colosseum that one time?"

"Hades mentioned something about Titans. Is that one of them?" Kairi asked. "Also, I thought he said it would still be a week before he could free them."

"This might be more of the Organization's meddling!" Goofy reflexively summoned his shield when a pebble fell on his head...

_"Incoming!"_ With Namine's warning, the team dove forward to avoid a giant boulder falling down from the Rock Titan's perch high above them. With a loud crash, the boulder blocked the path that led back down the mountain.

"Then the only way to go is up!" Sora dashed up the sheer cliff face, with Kairi right on his heels. They had to weave around more falling rocks that appeared out of thin air above them.

Appearing on a narrow ledge halfway up the cliff, Goofy called, "Gawrsh, he never did that in the Colosseum! Don't let your guard down, everyone!" He held his shield up to break apart a rock that was about to fall on Donald, then they popped over to join Sora and Kairi as they took a short tunnel through the mountain to get closer to the top. Just one more cliff to climb...

Frustrated by his foes' evasiveness, one of the Rock Titan's two heads roared and summoned multiple boulders at once. The other head stared blankly at its twin for a second as it waited for its turn to think, then roared as well to summon a second rockslide, leaving no space to dodge between the boulders.

Below the Titan, Sora switched tactics and started running _on_ the falling boulders, rather than dodging around them. He nimbly jumped from rock to falling rock. Unsure if she could keep up on her own, Kairi fused with Sora to give him a burst of strength, and Heart Sora cleared the top of the cliff with a flying leap. Kairi separated from him again as they got their footing, while Donald and Goofy appeared beside them. Sora pointed his Keyblade up at the Rock Titan and called out, "Alright! Now the fight's really on!"

Kairi followed Donald and Goofy's example and started hacking at the Titan's feet. "What can we expect from this guy, Sora?"

"Dunno. When we fought him in the arena, all he ever did was stomp around. Just don't get stepped on and you'll...watch out by your feet!" Sora grabbed Kairi and dove aside as a purple glowing line under their feet suddenly caused a series of sharp rocks to burst from the ground. The rocks quickly crumbled to dust after appearing, but another line was already glowing under the heroes' new position, forcing them to dodge again. "There's no way this is the same giant rock as before! Let's stay on our toes, then!"

"Speaking of toes, this foot's pretty much had it. Go hit the other one, Sora!" Goofy took advantage of the new attack's preference for targeting Sora, and gave the Titan's right foot one more solid whack with his shield, causing painful-looking molten cracks to form on it. "Let's knock it over, just like last time!"

"Got it!" Sora dumped his MP into a series of Fire spells as he closed in on the other foot, then got to whacking it with his Keyblade alongside Kairi. They jumped back in unison as the foot tried to stomp down, dodging a giant shockwave and a ring of spiky rocks. Sora kicked off the cliff wall behind the Titan and came in for a Flowmotion-fueled attack that finished off the foot.

With a pained groan, the Rock Titan wobbled and pitched, finally falling backward on his rump. He seemed to be having trouble standing up again, though his legs were slowly regenerating to close up the cracks. Sora took this opportunity to hop, skip, and jump up the sides of the Titan's massive body to reach his heads. All the Titan could do was flail his necks about, trying to crush Sora with his chin, but Sora was ready for that and rolled over onto the giant's shoulders before jumping back into the fray for a few dozen more whacks.

Down below, the rest of Team Sora didn't have much to do. "Gawrsh, how do we get up there...?"

"Wak! I've got an idea! Kairi, lend me some mana!"

"Sure thing. Up you get!" Kairi lifted Donald onto her shoulders and let him do his thing.

"DONALD METEOR!" With the extra mana boost siphoned from Kairi, Donald called down a series of flaming rocks from the sky, peppering the Rock Titan's face. "Two can play at that game!"

"Gotcha!" Sora finally managed to slice one of the Titan's weakened heads clean off, just as the brute finally managed to stand back up. His craggy cranium careened into the canyon, followed shortly by the rest of him. Sora barely managed to leap off his back and rejoin the others. "Ha! Dropped him like a sack of rocks!"

Jiminy popped up. "Well, I'll be! Great work, everyone! But if that was just the rear guard, things must be _really_ bad up ahead!"

"Good point. Let's go!" Sora led the way up the mountain trail to a short tunnel.

Goofy came up short at the wall. "Gawrsh, is this a dead end?"

"Nope!" Donald pointed at a crack in the wall with sunlight peeking through. "Ready, Sora?"

"Sure am, Donald!" He and Donald stood back to back and spun around, leaving a circle of firecrackers with their weapons.

"DUCK FLARE!" The rockets turned in midair and zipped over to the cracked wall to blow it up, letting extremely bright sunlight spill into the cave. Once everyone's eyes adjusted to the glare, they stared up in awe at their destination.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Olympus: Realm of the Gods..._

Gold-tinged clouds formed everything in this place: stairs; a big gate decorated with gold lightning bolts; huge, elaborate buildings... Goofy was certainly impressed. "Whoa, fancy! Herc's dad lives _here?_"

Sora gawked at the glamorous architecture. "Isn't this the kind of place where actual gods live?"

_"Sure is!"_ Hercules came swooping down from above. "Wow, how'd you guys beat me here? That headwind must've been worse than I thought." Pegasus huffed in annoyance at the rough flying conditions. "Anyway, yeah, my dad's Zeus, king of the gods."

Kairi was impressed. "Neat! Although I probably should've put two and two together by now... Wait, if your father's a god, wouldn't that make you a demigod, or something?"

"Full god, actually, but Hades kidnapped me as a baby and somehow got rid of my immortality, so I can't live here full-time. I have adoptive parents down below, too - the best ordinary folks on this side of the Aegean - but I can't just let Hades romp around Olympus like he owns the place! I'm heading straight to Zeus' throne, but I've got to free the other gods first, so don't wait up for me. Just keep heading up and you can't miss it. Let's go, Pegasus!" With a last thumbs-up to Team Sora, Herc nudged Pegasus into a climb and zoomed ahead.

"Let's not keep him waiting!" Sora tried to follow, but an entire platoon of Heartless appeared in his path: 25 tall, armored _Satyrs_ lined up in neat, organized rows with one extra in front at the center. All of the Heartless simultaneously covered their faces with their sharp-horned helmets and charged at Sora as one unit.

"Don't even think about it!" Goofy leapt in front of Sora with surprising agility, raising his shield to easily repel the lead Satyr. It tumbled back into its fellows, and the Heartless phalanx dissolved into chaos. Donald took advantage of the opening to sling some status-inducing spells around, leaving most of the Satyrs shocked, frozen, or burned.

"Sora, follow my lead!" Kairi took Sora's free hand and spun around with him, both of them shooting Pearl spells in every direction as they crashed into the remaining Heartless. The last spin was twice as fast and produced twice as many globes of Light, easily enough to wipe out the last of the Satyrs. "Holy Burst!"

Namine clapped. _"Nice! King Mickey did that with Riku once or twice."_

"Aw, I thought it was original." Kairi shrugged and set off toward a nearby ramp. There was still a lot of ground - er, clouds - to cover before the team could catch up with Hercules.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Team Riku's POV] Realm of Darkness: Lower Level: Cave of Return..._

Lambda stared at the cave mouth which the team found looming over them as soon as they touched down in the Realm of Darkness the second time. "Well, this confirms that it's the cave that moves to block our path. We're going to have to get through it somehow."

_"Let's blow it up!"_

Riku chuckled at Replica's enthusiasm. "Something this big? Sure, but we'll need to find a weak point, or a core, or something."

"Scanning...as I thought, it's a huge Heartless. Look, you can see its eyes way up over the cave mouth. And yeah, there's definitely some kind of huge energy signature inside. I've never scanned anything this Dark before. Like, not even Xehanort."

Riku summoned his Keyblade. "Well, we can't leave it alone, then. Lead the way, dear."

"Follow me." Lambda pushed through the membrane over the cave mouth and immediately fired the laser emitter holding her prehensile French braid together. The Braid Beam cleared away a swath of Graspers inside the cave, leading to a wall that was a slightly different shade of purple from the rest of the bluish-black stone pretending to be just another part of the Realm of Darkness. "IDEA Engine, activate. I'm feeling lucky today! Firaga!" _*SHEENG!*_ She scored a Quantum Critical, turning her merely great ball of fire into an even bigger one surrounded by a scattering of green holograms. ***BOOM!* **The wall exploded, revealing another chamber.

Riku applauded. "Whoa! Nice shot, dear!"

"Yeah, but don't expect one of those every time. It's random."

_"Let's hurry through before the Graspers come back!"_

In the new chamber, there were a series of featureless _Shadow Globs_ stuck to the walls, emitting streams of Darkness that seemed to empower a glowing purple barrier in the center of the room. Whatever was inside the barrier was obscured by the glow, but the proper course of action was obvious enough. Between the four of them (counting Replica), Team Riku was able to destroy all the Shadow Globs at once, and the barrier vanished.

Instead of some pulsing, biological core, the barrier contained a podium on which a dull, misshapen yellow crystal sat. Riku cautiously approached the podium. When nothing tried to stop him, he simply picked up the crystal and examined it, since it was smaller than his fist.

Immediately, the cave began to rumble. Lambda was worried it might collapse on top of them, but it merely disintegrated into smoke like any other Heartless. After the smoke dissipated and the team finished coughing, Lambda scanned the strange crystal. "Scanning...target is composed of 100% pure Darkness. I think...I think this crystal is one of the thirteen fragments of the original X-Blade's Darkness!"

Riku gawked at it. This little thing was a counterpart to the Princesses of Heart? "Seriously? But...wait a minute. If this thing exists, then what the heck does Xehanort think he'll accomplish with his plan?"

Mickey guessed, "Maybe he just needs 'good enough', not the original shards. After all, he managed to forge something awfully close to the X-Blade before with just two components of pure Light and Darkness, and he got those by splitting Ven into two people. He may not even know the original fragments still exist, otherwise I'm sure he would've gathered them up by now."

Lambda pocketed the crystal. "Either way, we should hang on to this... 'X-Frag', ourselves. It could mess up Xehanort's recipe, which is good for us."

Replica was stuck on a different plot point. _"So is the Ventus guy we're looking for a Nobody, or some kind of artificial male Princess of Heart, or...ugh, just save that explanation for when we find him, Your Majesty."_

Riku nodded in agreement. "Agreed. And we still need to find Aqua before she can lead us to Ventus, anyway. Let's get back to searching. Lambda, do you have a lock on them?"

"Affirmative. She's this way...and don't rush ahead this time, Mickey!"

"I know, I know!"

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_The Dark World: Castle of Broken Dreams..._

After a short trek through branching tunnels while being hounded by Neoshadows almost the whole way, Lambda led the team out into...a rural town? "Okay, what in the worlds are we looking at?"

Mickey gawked up at a shining castle visible in the distance. "This is...Cinderella's world, 'Castle of Dreams'! The Heartless destroyed it once, but it was restored when we beat Ansem and broke his Kingdom Hearts. So why is this place still in the Realm of Darkness?"

_"It must be a fake that the Realm created to replace what it lost. I sort of understand the feeling."_

Riku shrugged. "I guess we don't need to bother with anything here, then. We just need to get through this place to where Aqua is, right?"

"Right, dear. Scanning...there's a portal of some kind in the castle. Let's go..." Lambda took one step forward...and the ground fell away beneath her. "SERIOUSLY?!" She quickly equipped her Keyblade's Glider form and flew back up to her teammates with the green thrusters of her bladed rocket boots, then dismissed the Glider. "Geez, talk about a tone-setter. Guess the fake world isn't very durable." Lambda walked around the new pit. "Now let's - AAAH!" Another pitfall! Lambda flew right back up again, but now she was thoroughly ticked off. "Screw it, I'm just going to fly the whole way."

"Sure, but what about us?" Mickey gestured to himself and Riku, neither of whom could fly at will.

Lambda thought it over. "Oops, right. Let's see...I have Tow Options, but hauling you two along with those would be totally undignified, not to mention you couldn't defend yourselves if the Heartless decide to attack..."

"If only we had a grind rail..." Riku mused. "I've got it! Blizzard!" Riku fired a chunk of ice from his Keyblade that skimmed low to the ground, leaving behind a straight, thin trail of ice that went right between the two pits. Then he jumped on the trail and zipped along it with Flowmotion. Mickey followed right behind him. The ice bullet broke on a street corner, but thankfully the ground there didn't give way when Riku and Mickey jumped off the D.I.Y. grind rail. Apparently some parts of the town were stable enough to stand, but it was impossible to tell which areas were safe.

Lambda caught up on her Glider. "Nice! And that gives me an idea - I was wondering how I should implement a Blizzard Option!" She generated a new Option: a simple, stylized snowflake that left behind a frozen trail as it swooped through the air at her command. "This'll solve the problem of getting the rail to go around corners. All aboard! ...Whoa, that's cold!" Setting her bare feet down on the rail, Lambda copied what she'd seen of Riku's Flowmotion abilities, and the three of them (plus Replica) zipped along the rail as it bent and snaked its way through the distorted, empty town.

_Proximity alert._ Lambda jumped up and over a sudden swarm of small, fuzzy Heartless that stampeded through an intersection and over the grind rail.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Defeat the Heartless!_

Lambda hopped off the grind rail, confirmed the integrity of the ground, and took a good look at the mob of beady-eyed, worm-tailed little Heartless. "Scanning...Target ID: _Vermunchkin Swarm. _Individual _Vermunchkins_ are threat level D. Collective threat level: B. I think they're just here to slow us down."

Riku stuck the landing. "Well, they'll have to try harder than that! Dark Cannon!" He launched twenty purple fireballs and defeated twenty Vermunchkins.

_"Nice. Only a thousand more to go,"_ Replica snarked.

Mickey eyed the cobblestones around them worriedly. "If I use a Light blast here, it'll break the ground. We need another solution."

"Sure thing. Rats are scared of fire, right? Fire Option!" The snowflake hovering idly beside Lambda morphed into a fireball-shaped crystal, zipped forward, and spewed a stream of flames over the Vermunchkin Swarm. A few Heartless in the middle of the swarm caught on fire, which began to spread to the entire group. The swarm wouldn't last much longer...but until they burned out, Team Riku now had a swarm of _flaming_ rat Heartless to deal with! Lambda took a step back and sweatdropped. "I really need to start thinking these plans through..."

_"Don't worry, I've got this. Dark Shield!" _Replica manifested in front of the team and created a shield of hexagons over his hand, which he thrust against the wave of burning Darkness to hold back the threat until the individually weak rats succumbed to the flames. _"And that's that. Here's hoping there aren't any more distractions until we get to the castle."_

...Lambda was already distracted. "Wait a sec, gotta post about all of this on the group chat..."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Team Sora's POV] Olympus: Zeus' Throne..._

Sora led the way up to the tippy-top of Olympus. Along the way, he and Kairi traded all the information they knew about Shotlocks, Formchanges, and Drive Forms. In a stroke of rare genius, Sora combined a Shotlock with Flowmotion to invent a move he called an "airstep", which allowed him to fly straight to an enemy or landmark after locking on. This let him reach the highest point of Olympus without any stairs or grind rails. (Needless to say, Kairi was instantly hooked, vowing to incorporate this new ability into her fighting style.)

The first chance to test airstepping in combat came right away: as expected, Hades and three Titans all crowded the former site of Zeus' throne and audience chamber. The round, golden platform was pretty huge, but the elemental giants made it look merely large. They were in the process of pouring lava all over the bearded guy from the statue on the mountain.

"You won't get away with thi-!" Zeus' angry declaration was cut off by a blast of icy breath from the Ice Titan, which hardened the lava and sealed it over the god's head.

Hades conjured a throne out of storm clouds and slouched in it with a blood-based martini. "Sorry, bolt boy, _I'm_ the one calling the shots now!"

"Not if we can help it!" Sora charged headlong into the scene with his team right behind him.

"Ugh, you _again?_ Eh, no big deal. Titans! _DESTROY THEM!_" Hades and his throne vanished as the Titans turned to loom menacingly in the direction he pointed.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Clash with the Titans!_

"This is gonna be a tough fight..." Donald pointed his staff from one Titan to the next, unsure which to attack first.

"Don't worry, Donald! We outnumber 'em!" Goofy kept his shield at the ready in front of Donald, which turned out to be a good idea when the Tornado Titan sucked a huge chunk of rubble through his gaseous body and shot it out of a cyclonic arm right at the team. Somehow, Goofy stood firm against the attack, and the rubble was sent back the way it came. Even stranger, it seemed to actually damage the Tornado Titan.

Sora missed a step in surprise and stumbled to a stop. "What? That worked? But isn't it, like, made of _air_?" Luckily, the Tornado Titan was just as surprised, and decided to hang back and let the other two Titans handle most of the fighting for now.

_"Okay, that leaves two Titans to focus on. How can we even fight a Lava Titan, though?"_

"I've got an idea! Everyone follow me to the top of that mound!" Sora rushed to the top of the pile of igneous rock encasing Zeus and faced the Ice Titan. The rest of the team followed his lead.

"Now what, Sora?" Donald asked.

"Now we get the Ice Titan to attack. He's the only one of these three I've fought before, so I know we can redirect some of his attacks."

"And then we hit the Lava Titan with that! Smart idea, Sora!" Kairi grinned at him.

"Who'd have thought a blockhead like Sora could come up with a plan like this?" Donald joked.

"Hey!"

"Isn't it kind of a bad idea to let the Titans surround us, though?" Goofy wondered. (Luckily, the Titans in question were basically just standing around, wondering what Team Sora was up to).

Kairi called, "Namine, we're relying on you to let us know when the Lava Titan attacks from behind us!"

_"You can count on me."_

"Alright, then the only thing left to do is to make the Ice Titan lose his cool!" Sora tossed his Keyblade and bopped the Ice Titan right between the icy caves that passed for his nose. "Neener neener! You can't hit us!"

"ROOOOAAAAR!" The Ice Titan lost his cool, just as planned, and roared a beam of frigid energy at the heroes. Everyone jumped off the mound and slid down the sides to stay ahead of the beam...which turned out to be a bad idea when the mound was made entirely of rough stone, jagged ice spikes, and Zeus' biceps. They had to jump the rest of the way to the ground. Luckily, everyone stuck the landing.

Above them, the beam hit the Lava Titan, which made it boil with anger and belch a stream of lava back at the Ice Titan. Now enraged beyond their already pitiful capacity for reason, the two Titans grappled each other's arms and started trying to kill each other, immortal or no.

It was kind of redundant at that point, but Namine fulfilled her part of the plan. _"Everybody run!"_ Team Sora fled as storms of fire and ice filled the space around Zeus' prison, then watched as the opposing forces reduced each other to blobs of immobile half-liquids.

Sora turned toward the Tornado Titan. "That's what they get for not working together! Now there's just one left!"

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Defeat the Tornado Titan!_

The Tornado Titan rolled his blank, red eyes at the failure of his brethren and swept back into the fray. The first thing he did was suck the entire team of heroes into his arms and spit them up onto a layer of solid clouds overhead, then grew large enough to fight them there while still leaving his bottom-most point in the throne room. Unlike the solid Rock and Ice Titans and the liquid Lava Titan, the Tornado Titan had no fixed volume, so he could grow as large as he wanted to be - especially when he was angry. His immense size made it hard to tell how far away he was; running toward him seemed futile.

Maintaining a comfortable distance between himself and those painful Keyblades, the Titan began throwing more chunks of rubble, only to have Team Sora send the attacks back just like before. Even Donald managed to return a volley by catching it in midair with Donald Aero. The cyclone he generated was itty-bitty compared to the Tornado Titan, but it dealt plenty of damage.

"Can't he attack us any other way?" Kairi wondered.

Namine sighed. _"Kairi, I thought you knew better than to say things like that by now."_

Kairi covered her mouth. "Oops! Sorry, everyone!"

Sure enough, the Titan changed tactics. He sank beneath the clouds, then came back up with bits of the Ice Titan's body swirling through his arms. The half-melted ice refroze in the bitter winds, becoming icy spears that shot toward the heroes. They were able to defend themselves, but the icicles didn't fly back at the Tornado Titan the way they would've if the Ice Titan itself launched them.

Before anyone could react, the giant sank back through the clouds and came up using the Lava Titan as ammo instead. A blistering bombardment of unblockable fireballs rained down on the heroes from above, forcing all of them to keep running toward the Tornado Titan.

All of them except Kairi. She Formchanged her Keyblade into **Dual Fans **and twirled to spin the fireballs into a tornado of her own, redirecting the seemingly unstoppable force. "Now, let's see how _you_ dance!" She sent the swirling fire right back at the Titan, wounding him enough that he dropped all the bits of his ally. "Oops, you missed a beat. You'll get it next time, won't you?"

"ROOOOAAAR!" Never before had the Tornado Titan felt such all-consuming rage - and this was coming from a being of pure elemental chaos! He would _not_ allow himself to be humiliated by a _little mortal girl in a __**PINK DRESS!**_ He grew larger than ever and sucked all the heroes up again, this time spitting them high into the air to shoot more bits of rubble and his fellow Titans at them as they fell.

"Everyone grab on tight!" Sora got the rest of the team to link hands and control their fall, changing formation to bend around the projectiles. Soon, they came down right on the Titan's glowing red eyes. "All together!" They all readied their weapons and struck at the same time, somehow managing to poke out the eye of the storm.

The Titan was finally too weakened to maintain the cloud cover of the arena, and everyone fell back down to the throne room, where Hercules was waiting for them. "Sora, you didn't leave any for me!"

Sora laughed. "Whoops! Sorry, Herc!"

Hades, who had returned to the scene of the crime, wasn't laughing. "Oh, you think this is over? You think this is _funny?!_ TITANS! Get up and DESTROY THEM already!"

And just like that, the defeated Titans rose again. They were immortal, after all. Attacking them could only keep them down for so long. To make matters worse, the Rock Titan had finally climbed back up the mountain to join the fight.

Goofy yelped, "Oh no, there's four of them now!"

Sora rebutted, "So what? We still outnumber them!"

Hercules got an idea. "In fact...I think I can add one more to our team!" He leaped up onto the volcanic mound and dug into it, ripping apart the solid rock and ice with his bare hands. In moments, he struck gold, and Zeus emerged from the rubble, bathed in holy light.

"I already freed the other gods. Welcome back, Dad!"

"Nice work, my boy! Now it's my turn!"

Below, Hephaestus put the finishing touches on a new set of lightning bolts and hurled them up to Zeus. Hermes flitted by, taunting the Titans. "Oh, he's mad now! Now you're in for it! Better start running!"

A lightning bolt sheared off one of the Rock Titan's heads (the same one Sora had cut off earlier), and all the Titans started to flee, heedless of Hades' commands from below them. The Tornado Titan fled right over Hades' head, blowing his flaming hair out. Hercules saw this and got another idea. He ran over, _grabbed_ the Tornado Titan (for a mass of air, he was pretty solid), swung him around to suck up the other three Titans, and hurled the amalgam of evil elements up into space. A brilliant explosion followed soon after, but no sound reached the spectators down in the atmosphere.

"Did he actually kill them?" Kairi asked.

Goofy shook his head. "Probably not, but it'll take forever for any bits that are left to fall back down. And when they do put themselves back together, Herc will be ready. Right, Herc?"

"Absolutely!" Herc grinned his patented Action Figure Grin.

"That's my boy! A true hero, through and through!" Zeus patted his son on the back hard enough to make even Hercules stagger.

"Oh, that's right!" Sora ran up to Hercules. "I remembered the thing I wanted to ask you when I got here! Remember when you lost your strength before, and then you got it back? How did you do that? I need to figure out how to get my lost strength back, too."

Hercules scratched his head. "...It's not like there was some trick to it. I just saw that Meg was in trouble, and I threw myself into trying to save her. I was so focused on doing that one thing with all my heart, that I didn't stop to doubt myself over screwing up before."

"'With all my heart', huh..." Sora held a hand over his chest.

"Yeah. If you had that 'Power of Waking' once, then when you really need it, just look inside your heart, and it'll be there." Hercules decided to lighten the mood. "Besides, are you really sure you need more power? It's your first day back from whatever happened, and you're already holding your own against three Titans at once!"

A younger Sora might have just accepted the compliment, but now he was (slightly) more mature and able to see the reality of what happened. "It's not like I did much fighting, really. It was a team effort...and the Titans mostly beat themselves."

Kairi disagreed. "Even so, you stood up to them, held your ground, and kept a cool head under pressure. Plus, you came up with all the plans...and you told the Ice Titan 'neener neener' to its face! You're a great team leader, Sora! We'll just have to keep training until you get the rest of your power back."

Herc grinned wider, somehow. "Yep! It's like Phil always says, 'Rule Number 3: Courage is all that separates you from every other country bumpkin with a sharp stick!'"

Team Sora were all still laughing at Herc's Phil impression while they blasted off in the _Kingdom_ to report back to Yen Sid.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Team Riku's POV]_ _Realm of Darkness: Forbidden Mines..._

Opening the huge gates to the fake Castle of Dreams led to a completely different environment: a claustrophobia-inducing tunnel that was lit by glowing gemstones embedded in the rocky walls.

"I guess we already went through that portal, huh?" Riku commented. He pulled a gem from the wall, and it immediately stopped glowing and broke down into worthless dust. "Okay, now we know not to do that."

Lambda scanned the area. "Scanning...mapping... Good news: there's only one path! I'm not sure if there are any traps or enemies, though."

_" Those are guaranteed," _Replica scoffed.

Riku started leading the way deeper in. "Let's get through here before it caves in or something..." _*THUNK*_ The door behind them shut and vanished, leaving only bare stone. "Fine then. No going back."

Lambda took Riku's hand, in case some trap tried to eject her from the Realm of Darkness again. "What world is this place from, anyway?"

"I think it's Snow White's world. I got bounced there by the Star Shard once; the dwarves who live there are really protective of their diamond mine."

Lambda tilted her head to the side in thought, and caught a glimpse ahead of Riku. "Come to think of it, I've never met Snow Wh-what's that?"

_"I'm just guessing, but it looks like the tunnel ahead is flooded by a cloud of poisonous gas, judging by the...greenness."_

Riku groaned. "Great, and this is the only path. Plans, anyone?"

"Protect Option!" The barrier formed, partially overlapping the tunnel walls, and pushed the green clouds aside. "It's airtight, remember? We just have to get to the other side of the cloud."

"Great! That's a good plan!" Mickey charged ahead...right into the barrier. "Oof!"

Replica chuckled. _"Think of it as slowing-down practice."_

Team Riku charged through the cloud at a more moderate pace. As they reached the end, Riku saw a pair of_ Minute Bombs_ already prepped to explode. "No problem. It's not like they can get through the barrier."

Lambda was far more worried. "No - RUN!" She equipped her Glider and snatched up both of her tangible teammates before zooming along the tunnel at maximum speed.

"Lambda? Why are you so-" ***BOOOOOM!*** King Mickey was cut off by the sound of the Minute Bombs' self-detonations igniting the toxic cloud, creating a torrent of fire that rushed down the tunnel, lapping at the Protect Option's barrier even at this speed. Worse, the tunnel began to collapse around them! Rubble began to obstruct Lambda's flight path, forcing her to swerve around it...until suddenly she passed through a new portal.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_The Dark World: The Trial Worlds: Hub..._

"What...how...when...?" Lambda looked around the round, gray room in confusion, taking note of the doors in every direction and the swirling save point right in the center. "How is there a copy of the Training Worlds in the Realm of Darkness?"

"So this is where you trained with Team Kairi, dear? Only one of the doors is labeled. Well, not counting the one we came out of."

Replica groaned, _"I hope this doesn't mean what I think it means..."_

Lambda nodded sadly. "That we'll have to clear whatever trials wait behind each door to get past here and rescue Aqua? It certainly seems that way. But first, what about the save point?"

"The what?" Riku asked.

"Oh, right, you never saw Kairi make one. We used these to return to the Hub when we were done with each world. But this _is _the Hub, so what happens if we use this one?" Lambda approached the circle as the rest of the team crowded around her.

"Let's all try it together, just to be safe." Mickey jumped up and grabbed both Riku's and Lambda's hands, and they huddled into the circle.

"Okay...here we go!"

A flash of Light spirited the team away from the Realm of Darkness.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[The Realm of Light] Twilight Town: The Old Mansion: Library..._

Team Riku reappeared in the corner of a dusty, familiar library, at the top of the secret staircase leading to Ansem the Wise's hideout in Twilight Town. Behind them on the bookshelf, a small gargoyle bust with glowing green eyes stared at their feet - and at the strange, purple save point on which they'd appeared.

Riku asked the most pertinent question. "So...we can get back there through this, right?"

Lambda tested it...

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_The Trial Worlds: Hub..._

"That's a solid 'yes.'" Lambda immediately teleported them back to Twilight Town.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Twilight Town: Mansion: Library..._

"We should probably take a quick break before tackling the _Trial Worlds._ Let's check in with the other teams," Lambda suggested.

Riku agreed, and pulled out his Gummiphone to take a quick photo of the purple save point. He posted it to the chatroom Kairi had set up.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_GummiNet chatroom: Exploration Log..._

Riku: Bad news: we haven't found Aqua yet, and the next part of the Realm of Darkness looks...tedious. #TeamRiku #RealmOfDarkness #TheDarkWorld #TrialWorlds #TooManyDoors

Riku: [Photo: the Dark Save Point] Good news: we found a way to get to Twilight Town and back! #AnsemsMansion #TwilightTown

Roxas: so your back in twilight town? we arent having much luck following hazamas lead. wanna meet up for ice cream? #kingdomofcorona #marluxia #toomanytrees

Kairi: Wait for us! We're on our way to Twilight Town right now! We got a lot of training done, but still no luck with the Power of Waking... #TeamSora #TitanSlayers #StillInTraining

Hazama: [Photo: A _Demon Tide_ attacking local children] don't take too long - you'll miss the show ;) #Heartless #UsualSuspects

Mickey: OMGosh! #ToTheRescue


	4. The Long Darkness

**Clear Skies**

**Chapter 4: The Long Darkness**

**-"How Many Times Do I Have To Beat You?"-**

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Lambda's POV] Twilight Town: Tram Common..._

_Defeat the Demon Tide!_

Lambda landed next to Hazama, having opted to simply fly over the walls around Twilight Town to get here faster. "Okay, what did I miss?"

Hazama gestured up at the swarm of Shadows that were somehow flying overhead. "I was just minding my own business, checking out this restaurant, when all of a sudden these little shits invaded the town and knocked over my hard-boiled eggs, so of course I cut them into tiny shreds. But the Shadows just respawn way too goddamn fast! I wonder if a Keyblade would make more of an impression?"

Lambda revved up the engines on her Glider. "Let's find out..."

A bolt of Darkness streaked into the plaza and burst to reveal Riku and Mickey. Mickey stumbled around for a bit, unused to relying so heavily on Darkness to travel, but Riku was fully alert. "Okay, what did we miss?"

Lambda replied, "Scanning...Target ID: _Demon Tide_. Strength: A. Speed: A. Defenses: SS. _Shadows_ are spawning rapidly from a core in the front of the formation. Hazama says Keyblades might be more effective, but the scan data doesn't seem to indicate that."

Riku chuckled and readied his Keyblade. "Let's find out..."

Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy appeared simultaneously near the Synthesis Shop, which was a short distance from the bistro Hazama called them to. Sora called as they ran over, "Okay, what did we miss?"

Replica gruffly replied, _"Demon Tide. Attack the core."_

Kairi summoned her Keyblade and boosted herself up to the swarm on a blast of air. "Aeroga! I'm on it!" She delivered a lengthy air combo, but the damage didn't stick. For every Shadow she cleaved away, three more spawned. The princess dropped back down to the street with nothing but frustration to show for her efforts. "No good...I guess we're going to need more firepower."

_"Did somebody say MORE FIREPOWER?!"_ A fireball with Lea's voice came streaking over the buildings, only to be tackled out of the way by Xion's Sonic Blade lunge.

Xion and the fireball collided with a wall, and the two of them fell down next to a Dumpster. The fireball faded away to reveal Lea and a lightly toasted Xion, who proceeded to aggressively shake Lea's shoulders. "Lea, don't! You'll blow up the whole town!"

Lea slapped his forehead as he disentangled himself from Xion. "Man oh man, you're right! I've gotta put more thought into this whole last-minute rescue business." He cast Cure on Xion's burns instead of continuing to attack the Demon Tide.

_"Don't worry, I've got this."_ Roxas zoomed into the fray as a ball of Light and leaped up with both Keyblades in hand. His Keyblades spun in front of his hands like buzz-saws as he chopped at various parts of the Demon Tide.

"It's not going to work!" Kairi called out. "I already tried that. And the core is in the front of the swarm anyway!"

As she said, all Roxas accomplished was making the Demon Tide actually notice the abnormally large group of Keyblade wielders attacking it. The eyes of every single Shadow started glowing red at the same time, and the swarm rammed downward right where Sora was standing.

"Yikes!" Luckily, Sora's tried-and-true Dodge Roll proved sufficient to get him out of the way. He looked around to try and keep an eye on the Heartless...but where did they go?

_"Kairi, dodge left! They're underground!"_ With Namine's warning, Kairi managed to evade as the Demon Tide burst out of the ground beneath her feet, leaving behind no hole or crater. Then it crashed down on Riku, who defended himself with a Dark Barrier, but the swarm simply surged around him and went underground again. A trail of dust clouds indicated where the Demon Tide was headed, despite the lack of dust on the undamaged street.

The swarm burrowed swiftly and directly to a new target; Hazama skipped aside as the horde burst up from beneath him this time. "Can't it switch things up? This is getting boring."

Xion summoned her Bot Armor and fired plasma from her arm cannon as the Demon Tide curved through the air for yet another dive against Roxas (who Reversal-ed out of the way), but she didn't do much damage. She boost-dashed sideways as the swarm came back up from beneath her.

"DONALD METEOR!" As the Demon Tide rose back up, a series of flaming rocks from Sora and Donald's combined spell fell from the sky to meet it. While the barrage did manage to make the swarm change tactics, it also caused a bunch of craters in the street, which meant the heroes had caused more collateral damage than the monsters this time.

The Demon Tide swirled around itself, spraying Shadows as projectiles in every direction. Unlike the full swarm, the individual Shadows couldn't pass through walls, so they died upon impact with any solid object. "Protect Option!" Lambda's drone formed a barrier that defended most of the heroes from the barrage. Several dozen Shadows slammed into the barrier hard enough to destroy themselves, but not hard enough to break through Lambda's defense.

Outside the barrier, Riku put up his own Dark Shield to defend Mickey, who had found his bearings and begun charging his favorite spell.

"LIGHT!" A blinding blast spread through the whole plaza, destroying enough Shadows to finally see the glowing purple core within the Demon Tide.

Lambda dropped her barrier. "Everyone pile on that core! Aeroga!" A windstorm filled the space previously covered by the barrier, launching six Keyblade wielders (and Donald and Goofy) right at the Demon Tide's core. All seven of the Keyblades they had at their disposal pierced the blob of Darkness at the same time, rupturing it. The Shadows trailing behind it were sucked back in as the core imploded, then burst in a breathtaking explosion of reddish Darkness.

Naturally, everyone did an impromptu victory pose.

Sora spun his Keyblade around his hand and rested it on his shoulder. "Great work, everyone!"

Roxas swung both of his Keyblades to his sides and dismissed them, turning his back to the defeated Heartless. "We make a good team!"

Goofy saluted Mickey. "We couldn't have done it without ya, Your Majesty!"

Mickey rubbed his neck and dismissed the Kingdom Key D. "Aw, I'm sure you could've!"

_"Yeah, I probably could've done that." _Replica manifested himself and crossed his arms with a smirk.

"I'll have to come up with a new weapon to handle those." Xion thought to herself for a bit, then summoned a giant, round bomb covered in a red and orange checkered design. The fuse on top crackled and fizzed like a sparkler. "Yeah, these 'Ripple Bombs' ought to do the trick! Sora really did have a move for every occasion." She idly tossed the bulky explosive from one hand to the other.

Sora insisted, "I still do! I just...can't use them right now."

Lea yelled, "Xion, put that thing away! You _just_ called me out over collateral damage!" Xion responded by tossing the bomb way up into the air, where it had room to burst into a multicolored fireworks display.

"Speaking of which...wow, this place really is a mess." Kairi looked around. It wasn't just the craters from Donald's errant meteors; even before the battle, there were bags of trash and empty crates stacked up next to almost every wall.

"It wasn't this messy last time I was here," Roxas noted. "I wonder why...oh! That new restaurant is right where the dump used to be!"

"Now what's all this racket? Yer scarin' away me customers!" Out of the new restaurant came Scrooge McDuck, complete with hat and cane. "Oh, it's me nephew! And it looks like ye've made gobs of new friends since I last saw ye!"

Donald ran up to the other duck. "Uncle Scrooge! What're you doing here?"

Goofy asked, "Didn't we see you in Radiant Garden, comin' up with new ice cream flavors? Did ya ever recreate that flavor you were talkin' about?"

Scrooge recounted his offscreen adventures in a very thick accent. "Aye, that I did, and it was a huge success! But then I finally remembered where I tasted it before, so I got Merlin t' bring me here! Unfortunately, I couldnae compete with the old lady on the other side of the street. Customer loyalty's a powerful thing, lads! I woulda been sunk if it weren't for me Little Chef. With his help, I've set up 'Le Grande Bistrot', and business is booming! ...Or it _would _be, if _someone_ hadnae torn up the street!"

Donald slumped over. "Sorry, Uncle Scrooge..."

Scrooge turned a sly, half-lidded gaze on Donald. "Ye could pay me back, ye know..."

Donald slumped further over, like a half-melted snowman. "Oh, brother. Here we go..."

Luckily, the recompense Scrooge had in mind wasn't particularly harsh. "Just fetch me some ingredients from around the town. Little Chef needs all sorts of things to get his culinary inspiration churning! Nine different foodstuffs will do the trick."

Kairi turned out to be _very_ on board with this plan. "_EEE!_ Side-quests!" With a grin, she darted off to purchase things from street vendors and pull fruits from baskets around town. (Someone had apparently left baskets of fresh fruits and vegetables everywhere with "Take One" written on the sides. The townspeople certainly weren't complaining.) In no time at all, Kairi was back to present her findings from her Pouch of Holding.

"Aye, that's some good stuff! Thank ye kindly, lass!" Scrooge took the ingredients inside, and judging by the sounds from the kitchen, his mysterious "Little Chef" was already hard at work on his next masterpiece.

Riku righted one of the tables that were knocked down during the battle and sat down. "I suppose we should put in an order while we're here?"

Lambda sat across from him after hefting Mickey into a third seat. "I'm always ready to try new foods!"

"I'm pretty hungry, too," Sora plopped into a chair. "How much munny do we have?"

"I'll pay-Mmph!" Mickey was silenced by Donald shoving a hand over his mouth.

"No! You always overpay everyone, and if you do that to Uncle Scrooge, it'll be a disaster!"

Kairi checked her pouch. "I spent about 200 munny on the fish and bread I brought over, so I'm almost out of the munny I got at Olympus."

"I don't know what a 'side-quest' is, but it doesn't sound very profitable." Xion looked over at Lea and Roxas, who both shook their heads. They hadn't had much of a chance to make munny since their reconstruction.

Sora perked up. "Wait, I forgot about all the munny I made in the Sleeping Worlds!" He dumped about 3000 munny on the table.

"How do you still have that?! Do _I _still have that?!" Riku checked his pockets and found that he was indeed much richer than he'd been before going to sleep. "Huh. Actually, I remembered having twice this much. Maybe Sora and I were sharing it the whole time, so now we each get half. I guess I can pay for everyone."

"Sora, party of 11, can I take your order?" Sora looked up at Hayner, who was apparently working part-time as a waiter at this bistro. "The owner 'grudgingly sends his regards' for saving the bistro, so everything's 20% off for your group. We can chat after my shift!"

Hayner passed out menus to everyone - which didn't help most of them, since everything was written in French. Aside from Hazama, who learned French during the time loops back in the Azure Timeline (and he just wanted a hard-boiled egg anyway), and Lambda, who could ask the Azure's database what it said (and French was a lot easier to decode than the language of the Neuroi anyway), everyone had to just poke at items from each section and hope they got something good.

Then they waited. And waited. Sora eventually got impatient and went in the door - Donald was too late to stop him.

Sora's panicked voice carried out to the bemused onlookers. _"Whoa, what's this on my - HEY! Give me my legs back! Are you...oh. I guess you just wanted a helper to cook this stuff. Well...okay!" _With Sora's dubiously voluntary assistance, the food was ready in just a few more minutes, and the rest of the heroes were treated to the very strange sight of Sora wobbling out the door, moving like a puppet on strings, with a platter of amazing-smelling food in his arms...and a gray rat on his head, pulling his hair spikes with its paws like they were the controls of a giant mecha.

Riku chuckled at Sora's predicament as his best friend was coerced into serving him food. "So _that's_ the esteemed 'Little Chef'. Sure, why not? Today's been crazy enough."

Hayner brought out another platter for Team Roxas. "All employees are sworn to secrecy, but I guess Little Chef made an exception for this bunch of weirdos."

Olette showed up with Team Sora's platter and a hard-boiled egg in a little cup for Hazama. "Kairi, is that you? I hardly recognized you with the new hair and outfit!"

"Yeah! Sora and Riku saved me, but I've decided to save myself from now on. I guess plaid is 'in' this year, huh?" Kairi gestured to Olette's and Hayner's clothes, which were in the same style they'd worn before, but now colored black with red plaid pants.

Hayner called over, "Olette! We've got a job to do! You can talk fashion later!"

Olette sheepishly withdrew from Kairi's table. "I hear you. Stop by the old mansion later, guys! Pence has been fixing the computer down in the basement, and I think he's almost done."

"Hayner...Pence...Olette..." Roxas was too dazed to respond as the Usual Suspects went back into the bistro. It really felt like forever since he'd been here. And these weren't _his_ Usual Suspects, but...well, the connections between hearts were confusing, to put it mildly. Xion nudged him toward his food, which was... "This is delicious! I was worried when I picked it at random, but I guess everything Little Chef makes is good."

Still on Sora's head, Little Chef nodded smugly.

Kairi asked the rat, "I'm sorry, but can I have my boyfriend back now? Also, thank you for the food, err..."

The rat didn't seem to say anything besides some unintelligible chitters, but Kairi apparently understood. "Your name's 'Remy', then? Well, thank you for the food, Remy!"

Remy smiled, hopped off Sora's head, and scampered back into the kitchen.

Jiminy Cricket popped out of Sora's hair and shook his tiny fist in the direction of the door...even as he sampled some of Sora's potato soup. "Well I never! This hairdo isn't big enough for the both of us, you scoundrel! ...I must admit, though, he really does make good food."

Hazama deadpanned, "So we're just going to gloss over the fact that Kairi apparently speaks fluent rodent-ese?"

"It sounds like a Princess of Heart thing," Lambda replied around a mouthful of fish. Riku reached over and brushed some sauce off of her cheek with a napkin, making her blush.

Lea snickered, "If it weren't for the contractual obligation to get kidnapped at some point, being a Princess of Heart would be a pretty sweet deal."

Kairi pouted at Lea...only to notice something about Lambda, who was sitting in her line of sight. "Lambda, what is that _thing_ in your pocket?! Keep it away from me!" How did Kairi not notice the _thing_ before?! ...Oh, right. The Demon Tide. The swarm of Shadows was dark and scary in its own right, and certainly better at drawing attention to itself than the _thing_.

Lambda blinked a few times, then remembered the crystal her team found in the Realm of Darkness. "Oh. _That_ thing." She brought it out, and tried to explain what it was, struggling to be heard over Kairi's sudden descent into total screaming terror. "It's a shard of the original X-Blade's Darkness; I call it a X-Frag. I guess it makes sense that Kairi would have a bad reaction to it...where else can we store it, though?"

Merlin replied, "Luckily, I just so happen to specialize in the safe handling of lost and forbidden knowledge!"

Riku jumped out of his chair when he noticed a fourth seat had appeared at his table. "Whoa, how long have you been here, Merlin!?"

Merlin chuckled. "Only long enough to assess the problem. Yen Sid and I can safeguard this 'X-Frag' for you. If you discover any other fragments during your foray into the Realm of Darkness, be sure to deliver them to Yen Sid immediately."

"Will do." Riku handed off the X-Frag, and Merlin _*poofed* _away - chair, meal, and all. Kairi immediately started to calm down, so everyone could finish eating. Having finished her meal, Xion pulled her Gummiphone out to post about the full Le Grande Bistrot customer experience. She updated her shirt to read, "_Eating and Tweeting: Better Together_".

Once everyone was finished, they all headed to the old mansion...Except Hazama, who went off on his own again.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Excerpt from new GummiNet chatroom: Fun and Minigames..._

Xion: [Photo: Remy holding onto Sora's hair] We saved a new restaurant in Twilight Town...with an interesting "head chef!" [chef hat emoji] Hero work tastes good! _#TeamEverybody #LeGrandeBistrot #LittleChefRemy #RatControlled #SwornToSecrecy_

Lea: if it's a secret, don't post it on a public chatroom! _#nocommonsense #gotitmemorized_

Xion: [Sweatdrop emoji] Oops.

Kairi: I don't think it's a huge problem. After all, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are sitting right here. _#DoubleStandard #SpeaksFluentRodentese #PrincessPerks_

Sora: I'm here, too! Don't forget me! _#JiminyCricketWasHere #getoffthescreen #sora_

Lambda: Are you seriously texting each other when we're all sitting right here? I can do it hands-free, but all of your food is going to get cold at this rate. It would be a huge shame to waste such good food! _#TeamEverybody #Multitasking #AugmentedRealityFTW #Delicious_

Hazama: I can confirm that the food is good :) _#HardBoiledEggs #OneTrueFood #AlwaysSpying_

Roxas: to each his own. this tart axe fruit thing is really good too! _#justhazamathings #stilltexting #dualwielding #teamroxas #dessert #whatevenisfrench_

Riku: Causing a loud scene in public, though...not so much. _#Kairi #XFrag #PrincessProblems_

Riku: Sorry about that. I didn't want to just leave it where we found it, though; it created a Heartless the size of a cave around itself! _#RealmOfDarkness #CaveOfReturn #ProbablyImportant_

Kairi: You're forgiven, Riku, don't worry. I'm so embarrassed! I lost all my composure so quickly. That thing really does scare me to death, though... Definitely don't let Xehanort get ANY of them! _#GottaCatchEmAll #PrincessProblems #XBlade #EndOfTheWorlds_

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Twilight Town: Tunnels..._

"Why oh why did they seal up the hole in the wall? I _liked_ that convenient hole." Roxas grumbled as Hayner led the party through the cramped, smelly underground tunnels, which were now the only way to reach the woods outside town (at least for people who couldn't just fly over the town walls).

Olette replied, "The mayor didn't like the idea of evil monsters of Darkness invading the town, so he ordered it to be sealed up right after those Organization guys staged that big invasion with the...time rip things. Can you blame him?"

_"I kinda can, since the tunnels are already infested with Heartless anyway."_ Replica flew over the group's heads into the middle of a group of Shadows, annihilating them with a Dark Burst.

"Proximity alert." Lambda sent a basic Option to shoot an orange pot that seemed to be discarded along the side of the tunnel, revealing it to be a Heartless. "Target ID: _Popcat_. They're definitely weak, but they might get the jump on someone in these tunnels."

"That's it! I can't stand this mess anymore! I'm going to make up a custom spell. Clean!" Kairi brandished her Keyblade, forcing the people around her to duck. It sprayed iridescent bubbles from its tip that floated this way and that. Wherever the bubbles landed, they popped, causing any piles of trash they touched to disappear into bursts of sparkles until the space around Kairi was spotless. Some of the trash left behind bits of munny, too!

"You can get paid for that?!" Donald now had a vested interest in learning this new spell.

"That wasn't actually how I expected the spell to work," Kairi admitted, "but I'll take it! It's useless in combat, though." She pointed out another Popcat which wasn't affected by the spell. Lambda's Option blasted it.

Hayner got on his knees and begged, "Can you cast that spell on the whole tunnel? Everyone hates the smell in this place."

Kairi giggled. "Sure, Hayner." She bumped her way to the front of the group, and the Tunnels were literally cleaned out soon enough.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_The Woods..._

The group emerged into blessed fresh air. From there, it was a short jaunt through the woods (also known as, well,_ The Woods_) to reach the Old Mansion. Unfortunately, the Heartless were all over this place, too.

"It's been a while since I've fought Powerwilds!" Sora blocked a sliding kick from a gray, monkey-like Heartless and retaliated with a strong uppercut that knocked the baddie into the air, allowing Sora to continue his combo.

"These guys are even more annoying than I remember!" Donald tried to cast Fire at a group of Powerwilds clinging to the trees, but he was interrupted by one of them throwing an oversized acorn at his head, leaving him dazed.

"Gravity Option!" Lambda's Option morphed into a boxy satellite that flew around the woods, pulling the Powerwilds in the trees down to the ground with a field of intense gravity.

"Thanks, dear! That makes things much easier!" Riku dove into combat and defeated all the monkeys in a matter of seconds.

"Behind you!" Kairi warned him of a new group of Heartless containing a Large Body and several Vermillion Sambas, which took a moment to summon fiery glyphs before attacking.

The extra delay cost them, as Riku tore the new group of Heartless apart as easily as the others. "These guys are too easy. There aren't even that many of them."

_"Maybe you need a change of pace, then!"_ That wasn't Namine or Replica talking - Xigbar's voice echoed through the trees. Tiny wormholes began opening, spitting glowing pink arrows down at the heroes.

"Protect Option!" Lambda covered the whole party in a barrier, rolled her eyes, and kept walking. "Maybe later, Xigbar."

_"As if. You won't blow me off that easily! Now, everybody dance!"_ Xigbar started firing his blue, defense-penetrating crystals, forcing Lambda to drop the barrier so everyone could dodge...right into each other.

Once the barrage ended, Olette healed everyone. "Curaga! Is everyone okay?"

"...Target locked on. Riku, this way!" Lambda grabbed Riku's hand and ran off the path.

"Fellas, wait up!" Mickey charged after them.

"Your Majesty!" Donald tried to follow, but Goofy stopped him.

"Team Riku can handle that guy, no problem. We need to stick together!"

"Actually, we don't," Roxas pointed out. "You guys have training to do, but we're just waiting on Ienzo to finish analyzing Ansem's Code. You should head to a world called Toy Box; Hazama said Xehanort's younger self is there making a mess of things."

Sora considered it and nodded. "Well...okay. We'll let you catch up with the Usual Suspects, then."

"Say hi to Pence for me!" Kairi teleported her team back to the _Kingdom_, leaving behind a swirling save point.

Hayner tried to sort out everything he'd just heard. "So, um, Roxas...how do I know you again?"

"That's a _long_ story. I'll tell you after we find Pence and have a chance to sit down." The now manageably-sized resumed heading to the Old Mansion.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Team Riku's POV]_

_Defeat Xigbar!_

"Tracing spatial distortions...target locked on." Lambda made a beeline for the specific tree that had Xigbar hiding in its boughs. "Gravity Option!"

A purple field of increased gravity surrounded the tree, but no Nobody came tumbling down. A pink crystal shot out of the foliage and destroyed the Option. "Think you can beat _me_ with Gravity magic? As if!"

"Just checking. Riku?" Lambda stepped aside to give Riku room to jump all the way to the top of the tree and clock Xigbar on the head with his Keyblade. "Nice one, dear!" The sounds of a struggle came from up the tree, but no one could see anything from below.

Mickey arrived on the scene and yelled, "Xigbar! Why are you still on Xehanort's team, anyway? Surely you must've noticed he's the losing side."

The only reply was the whooshing sound of Xigbar's teleportation. Lambda grumbled, "No answer, huh?"

"That's my fault," Riku admitted as he dropped back down. "I went kinda hard on him up there."

Replica chuckled, _"Only 'kinda'? You gave him a wedgie and left him hanging from a branch!"_

Riku defended, "And he'd never have expected it! Speaking of unexpected things, I wonder if all the Organization members wear Nobody Emblem-print boxers like he does?"

Everyone collapsed laughing on the forest floor. Lambda wiped some tears of mirth from her eyes and offered, "So, are you three up for one of those Trial Worlds now?"

Riku pushed himself to his feet. "Might as well. Pushover or not, Xigbar was clearly only here to split up the group, and he did. So we're back to taking care of each team's own business." He led the way back to the Old Mansion, and from there to the save point, which was thankfully still active in the library.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_[Realm of Darkness] Trial Worlds: Hub..._

One door was glowing purple, making it easy to guess where to start. A label was engraved on the door:

_Trial World I:_

_Eclipse Town_

"That sounds kind of like the first Training World," Lambda noted. "And if that's the case, we're talking about a large, ruined city that'll be crawling with too many Heartless to track the boss."

"Let's find out..." Riku pushed open the door, and Darkness spilled out to swallow the team...

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Eclipse Town: Ruins..._

Everything was as Lambda predicted, except that instead of a full moon overhead to provide a little illumination, there were no moon or stars at all, leaving the whole world in pitch darkness except for the glowing eyes of the Pureblood Heartless that had already gathered around. "Called it. The systematic approach it is, then."

Riku sniffed the air. "No, I can tell exactly where the boss is...but man, it's fast! It's...it's coming right at us!"

At that point, the boss' presence grew strong enough for anyone to detect, enhanced senses or not. It gave them the hair-raising feeling of being watched, but to such an intense degree that the team could practically see out of the bloodshot eyes of the predator stalking them.

Luckily, once they pushed through the terrifying intensity of it, that absolute killing intent made the boss' inevitable pounce really easy to predict and dodge. Behind and to the left! Everyone got out of the way safely, watching a black blur tear through Shadows and Darkballs. Whatever this thing was, it was strong and vicious.

The only three things they could discern about it were A) that it was a Heartless, with the customary round, glowing yellow eyes, but B) the glow of those eyes was red, not yellow, and C) its huge silhouette was somehow even darker than the pitch blackness all around it.

Lambda tried to scan it in the split second it spent in the clearing, but she was too slow. "Scanning...target lost. It got away."

Riku groaned. "Great...now we're going to be stalked by _that_ thing the whole time we're here."

Replica shouted, _"It's already coming back! Dodge left!" _Everyone dove out of the way as the boss came sailing through the clearing again.

"I recognize these tactics...this is the Heartless I was fighting when you all got caught by the Cave of Return! Light, give me-OOF!" Mickey tried to charge up a blast of Light to illuminate this place, but the boss bowled him over before he could build up enough power.

"Mickey!" Riku zipped over to his fallen friend and put a Dark Barrier over the two of them, sweating a bit as the boss came lunging at them again...

_*PING!*_While Riku's barrier held up to the assault, the spherical shield was sent rolling away from the clearing and out of sight, leaving Lambda alone with the beast. "Riku! NO!" Lambda tried to run after them, but the boss' silhouette blocked her path.

"No! You won't separate us! Never again! Fire Option!" She summoned a crystal fireball that belched a stream of flames at the silhouette, which dodged by circling around the clearing too quickly to track...but that was Lambda's plan. She fired her Braid Beam off to the side, allowing the boss to barrel into it and stumble to a halt long enough for Lambda to finally scan it.

"Scanning...Target ID: _Dark Hide_. Threat level: S. Strength: S. Magic: A. Defense: A. Speed: SS. Current movement patterns analyzed." She crooked a taunting finger in the Dark Hide's direction, then launched a Firaga when it charged at her. It took the fireball to the face and stopped rushing. Instead, it closed in on Lambda, clawing wildly with its front legs.

"Blizzaga!" Before it could get into paw's reach of Lambda, a spike of ice drove into one of its glowing eyes, exploding in a burst of frost when it failed to pierce all the way through. "Just die already! Thundaga!" Bolts of lightning crashed down on the Dark Hide, covering its whole body in a painful electric charge...

The Dark Hide arched its back as if roaring, but no sound came out. The Darkness hiding it from view dispersed, however, revealing the nondescript ruins around the clearing and the Heartless itself.

It was canine in appearance, with dark purple, hairless skin. Crisscrossing veins covered it from its head to its feet, but not on its spike-ended, segmented tail. A ring of reddish tentacles formed a mane around its wedge-shaped head. Its mouth was constantly open, tongue lolling out around sharp teeth that seemed to be part of its jaws - a common feature of powerful Purebloods. Unlike Invisibles or Darksides, though, there wasn't any heart-shaped hole in its torso that Lambda could see. Besides the jaws, its primary weapons were the bright purple claws on its four feet; five on the front legs and four on the back. Its front legs wore metal cuffs with chains dangling out to the sides, ending in sharp anchors that flailed about as it moved.

And man, could it move! Now that its stealth advantage was negated, it focused on moving really, really fast. It seemed to surround the clearing in a tornado of claws, only to come spiraling out at random angles like a fanged missile. Lambda put up a Protect option in a half-dome around her, wary of being sent tumbling like Riku was. She attempted to send various Options out to fight while staying inside her barrier, but the Dark Hide wouldn't let them stick around long enough to fire. Lambda knew that if she dropped her barrier to fight it herself, then she'd be destroyed just as quickly.

"Grr! While I'm stuck here, Riku could be..."

...Breaking back into the fray and meeting the Dark Hide's pounces move for move with his own Dark Aura attack! "Are you okay, dear? I'm sorry for leaving you in the lurch back there."

"LIGHT!" A blinding nova blasted the Dark Hide out of its circling pattern and sent it tumbling to the middle of the clearing, right in front of Lambda's shield. Mickey flew back into the clearing with a spinning leap, carving along the Dark Hide's back and landing on top of the barrier. "Sorry about earlier, fellas! I hope I got it right this time!"

The Dark Hide roared again, and this time they could hear the rumbling whoosh of powerful Dark magic behind it. The beast created differently-colored afterimages as it stood back up...but instead of trailing behind it, they ran forward and attacked, effectively giving the boss five extra sets of claws! The ethereal claws sheared right through Lambda's barrier, destroying the Protect Option and sending Mickey tumbling down into Lambda's arms. "Got you, Your Majesty! Let's finish this thing off!"

Before they could aim any more spells, though, the Dark Hide dove into a pool of Darkness and popped up beneath them with a raging orange vortex. Lambda and Mickey were sent tumbling away from each other as the Dark Hide dove underground again.

_"I'll handle this." _Replica manifested himself and dove into his own pool of Darkness, meeting the boss on its way to Riku. The combined pool bubbled with an unseen struggle, but Replica had no body to be hit. _"Dark Riser!" _He blasted the boss up into the air and vanished to recover his energy.

"Tow Option!" Before the boss could fall back down, Lambda summoned four flying saucer-like Options with long, hooked cables above it. A pair of Options hooked onto each of the boss' decorative chains, leaving it hanging helplessly in the air. "Gotcha! Everyone let him have it!"

"Holy!" ***PSSSEEEEEEEWWWW!* **Mickey's spell called down a beam of Light from above.

_"Dark Cannon!"_ Replica hadn't recovered enough for anything really flashy, but he did launch a salvo of eight Dark Firaga balls that homed in all over the boss.

"Bladecharge!" Riku coated his Keyblade in a huge aura of Light before leaping up to deliver a single mighty slash, finally destroying the boss. A wave of Darkness washed over everything, sending them back to the Hub...

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Trial Worlds: Hub..._

Everyone woke up in a tangled pile, leaning up against a blank wall where the door to Eclipse Town used to be. The door to the right of that was now glowing and labeled:

_Trial World II:_

_Lotus University_

Lambda nodded in understanding. "Yep, it's a pattern. Hopefully we can breeze through all of these as quickly as the last one."

Riku stood up and stretched. "I'm ready for another round. How about you, Your Majesty?"

"Sure am!"

"Hold on," Lambda interrupted, "we should text the others and give a mission report."

Riku asked, "Why bother? We haven't gotten very far with this."

Lambda explained, "Because this is the Realm of Darkness, so we've got to be careful not to lose track of time. Otherwise, years could pass out there before we notice! I remember sending communications into the Training Worlds caused the altered flow of time to synchronize with the real world, which is why Roxas had to join us inside. I'm hoping I can get the same effect here."

Mickey gave her a thumbs up. "Wow, good thinking! I want to keep Minnie up to speed, too." He checked his Gummiphone, but apparently Queen Minnie either didn't have one yet, or she didn't keep it turned on, so he pulled out a bottle, a quill, and a sheet of parchment for his usual letter-in-a-bottle communication while Riku and Lambda logged into the GummiNet.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_GummiNet chatroom: Exploration Log..._

Lambda: [Photo: the door to Trial World II] We've cleared the first Trial World! It looks like we're doing a rehash of the Training Worlds for now. I'm glad it didn't take us a day and a half to clear the first one this time! The boss was a doozy, though, and this was just the first of seven! Rescuing Master Aqua is going to be tougher than I thought... _#TeamRiku #TrialWorlds #EclipseTown #LotusUniversity_

Riku: I've never seen anything strong enough to send me rolling away inside my barrier! _#DarkHide #RealmOfDarkness_

Sora: hercules did it to pete once _#olympuscolosseum #underworld_

Riku: I'll keep that in mind in the future. So, how goes the training?

Kairi: [Photo: selfie of Kairi as a doll in Andy's room] Everyone else turned into action figures on this world. Even Donald! So why did I turn into a dress-up doll? The locals confused me for someone named "Barbie." _#ToyBox #ToyLivesMatter #DoubleStandard #StillInTraining_

Donald: HEY

Goofy: [Photo: _Verum Rex_ box art] They also think Sora's some character from a video game! "Yozora" or something. That character kind of looks more like Riku, though! _#VerumRex #AlreadyFamous #StillInTraining_

Kairi: [Photo: Buzz Lightyear firing his wrist laser at a _Toy Trooper_ Heartless] We haven't seen Xehanort around yet, but the Heartless are definitely here. Our best lead is a nearby toy store called "Galaxy Toys." Keep in touch!

Xion: Speaking of keeping in touch, it turns out Ansem's computer in Radiant Garden is connected to the one in Twilight Town! Pence got it running, so Ienzo can use some "distributed computing" mumbo-jumbo to analyze Ansem's Code that much faster! [Thumbs up emoji] _#TeamRoxas_ _#UsualSuspects #ExOrganization #CrackingTheCode_

Ienzo: It's not "mumbo-jumbo", but it is apparently above your level of education. Not that I expected anything different from most of you. On the topic of the Code, though, we've analyzed about 30% of it. So far, it's just copies of Ansem's research into the mysteries of the heart, dated from back before Radiant Garden fell. It seems the most important data is even more heavily encrypted, but steady progress is being made. _#ZexionVI #ExOrganization #CrackingTheCode_

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_A/N: Happy late Thanksgiving, everyone! Speaking of which, I'd like to thank anyone who's still following this. An especially big thank-you is in order for Titano Man XIII, who seems to be the only person still reviewing each chapter. Of course, there are also several new followers and favorite-ers to thank, as well as a crowd of other readers. It really does make my day every time I get another one of those notifications!_

_Don't worry, not all the Trial Worlds are just watered-down Training Worlds, and it won't be seven chapters until we're past this plot arc. I do have an actual plan for all seven of them, too, so hopefully it won't take forever to write them out. I still have to plan how much the other teams can accomplish in that time, though._


	5. Group Projects

**Clear Skies**

**Chapter 5: Group Projects**

**-"The closer you get to Light, the greater your shadow becomes."-**

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_A/N: Been a while, huh? Have you all played the last KH3 DLC bundle? I had a lot of fun with it, and it certainly helped (a little) with my issues with Kairi's portrayal in canon. I still think I can do better, though, if I haven't already._

_EDIT: The next chapter, which is from Team Roxas' perspective, has taken a significantly darker turn than I expected, so the chat segments in this chapter have been updated to reflect the new scenario._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of this stuff. All rights reserved to the owners, and all that._

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_{Team Riku's POV} [Trial Worlds] Lotus University: Atrium..._

The first thing Lambda did upon entering Trial World II was run a long-range scan. "Scanning...referencing...thought so! This Trial World's layout is an exact match for the Training World it's based on. And that means I know where to find the coolest thing ever! Firaga!" She sent an exploding fireball straight up into the ceiling, bringing down a rain of plaster, wood, and Shadows, the latter of which got mopped up by Riku and the King. "Looks like there are a lot of minor enemies, but I'm not getting any readings strong enough to be the 'boss'. Anyway, follow me!"

She equipped her Glider and pulled Riku and Mickey up through the hole she'd made, then set off down the left-hand hallway. She led them right past the _Arena_...and directly to the _Mecha Hangar._

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Mecha Hangar..._

Lambda kicked open the door and gestured widely to the huge room...the huge, _empty_ room. "Ta-dah! ...Wait, there's nothing here? Crud."

"I wouldn't say there's 'nothing'..." Riku pointed out a mixed army of armored Heartless appearing between the heroes and the hangar door.

"Double crud." Lambda started scanning. "Targets analyzed: 40 C-class_ Armored Knights_, 2 B-class _Powered Armors_, 2 B-class _Rock Trolls_, and 1 A-class _Zip Slasher_. We've fought the Armored Knights and Powered Armors before, but the Rock Trolls are at least a little new; they're big, bulky giants which fight like big, bulky giants. Dodge their slow axe swings and grind them down! As for the Zip Slasher - here it comes!"

Lambda interposed her Petal Blades as a wall between herself and the Zip Slasher. It could have been mistaken for another Armored Knight if not for its dual sword-arms and its much greater speed and aggression. It performed a spin attack followed by a double stab, grinding against Lambda's blades. "I'll keep this one busy! It's no _Stalwart Blade_; I can keep up with this level of swordplay. Might take a while to bring down its ridiculous S-tier defenses on my own, though." Lambda sent half of her Petal Blades forward to slash along the Zip Slasher's sides while keeping the other four blades close by for defense.

Mickey flipped into the middle of the Armored Knight platoon and started tearing the lesser Heartless apart like a little furry tornado of Light. "I'll handle the small fry! Riku, do ya think you're up to fighting those four big ones?"

"I was hoping you'd ask!" Riku leaped over his friends' battles and landed right in the middle of the largest foes.

Lambda sighed, "This is almost boring." Block, counter. Block, counter; the Zip Slasher seemed to have only one move. "My question is, how did these Emblem Heartless get down here in the Realm of Darkness? Weren't their kind manufactured in Radiant Garden?"

Mickey annihilated the last stragglers from the group he was fighting with a single blast. "Do ya think it could be because we took that crystal thing back to our Realm?" He fired a few Pearls to support Lambda, but the Zip Slasher just batted them away with its spin attack.

"Maybe. It might just be part of this illusory Trial World, though. What _really_ worries me is that the Realm of Darkness somehow copied two of the Training Worlds, when even Xehanort didn't know about them. Is the Realm of Darkness..._watching_ us?" Lambda blocked, countered, and blasted the Zip Slasher with a focused burst from her Braid Beam, staggering it long enough for Mickey to get in a jumping spin attack.

"If it is, then let's give it a show to remember!" Riku goaded a Rock Troll into knocking the head off of a Powered Armor, causing its floating limbs to lose cohesion and drop to the ground, where he blasted them with Dark Riser. Then he ignited Bladecharge and bisected the Powered Torso. The other Rock Troll tried to bring its axe down vertically, but Riku teleported behind it and chipped away at its leg armor with a Shadow Strike.

The other Powered Armor tried to spin its Gauntlets at him, but Replica put a Dark Shield in the way. _"They can certainly keep us on our toes...but can these guys really be the biggest challenge here? We're not even using a quarter of this room to fight them."_

"Don't jinx it, please. Tow Option!" With two hooks, Lambda caught the Zip Slasher in the middle of its predictable spin attack and lifted it helplessly off the ground, letting her whale on it with all eight Petal Blades until it finally popped with surprisingly little fanfare, aside from leaving behind a whopping 1200 munny.

"Okay, we're ready to help you out, Riku!" Mickey turned to look, and saw that Riku and Replica had already destroyed all four boss-sized enemies with an extra-long salvo of Dark Cannon blasts. The King sighed to himself. "It never fails. I'm always either too fast or too slow."

Lambda turned in the other direction. "Proximity alert: incoming Heartless from the hallway outside!"

The doors broke open under a tide of worthless cannon fodder. Mickey blanched. "There's gonna be no end to 'em!"

_"No need to be so dramatic."_ Replica blocked the doorway with a Dark Wall. _"There, now you just have to blast 'em once."_

Mickey did so. "LIGHT! I have to wonder, is this cheating?"

"No, I'll _show_ you cheating! Keep the rest of them outside for a minute, I've got a plan." Lambda equipped her Glider and flew up to the command room overlooking the hangar, where teachers and maintenance personnel could manage the giant mechas if there were any people or mechas here.

Even so, there was a computer terminal up here, and Lambda hacked in through it to access the Lotus U intranet. "Surely the Realm of Darkness wouldn't simulate a computer network in this trial if it didn't want us hacking it," she rationalized. "Oh, look what we have here - a self-destruct program for the school! Let's see how it performs. Aaand...CLICK!"

Suddenly the lights overhead turned red and started pulsing on and off. A pre-recorded female voice announced over hidden loudspeakers: _"Self-destruct sequence activated. All students and faculty, please evacuate immediately. Time until detonation of all campus facilities: Three minutes."_

Lambda swooped back down to the doorway. "You heard the lady! Replica, clear the wall. We've got three minutes to push through the chumps outside and get back to the entrance!"

Riku glared at her with equal parts exasperation and desperation. "Couldn't you have just set it to detonate remotely?"

Lambda laughed nervously. "...Well, not anymore, I can't. Oops!"

Replica removed the Dark Wall and used a Dark Burst to briefly clear out the hallway on the other side, then returned to Riku, his energy spent for now. _"Go, go, go!"_

"Protect Option!" Lambda surrounded the team in a barrier so they could shove their way past the miscellaneous throngs, but the hall was soon blocked by sheer traffic volume. A solid clot of glowing yellow eyes filled the hall from top to bottom. "Rrgh! Well then, we're taking a detour." Lambda dismissed her Protect Option and launched a Firaga behind them, blowing a hole in the floor that led to the identical hallway below.

As the team touched down on the first floor, an announcement informed them, _"Two minutes to self-destruct. Evacuate immediately."_

"Gee, we'll get right on that after we get past this jerk! Looks like we've found the boss." Riku pointed his Keyblade at a huge, boxy _Infernal Engine_ making its way down the hall, blocking every inch of it. If they could get past it, the entrance to the Trial World would be right on the other side.

Lambda remembered fighting one of these back when Organization XIII was stirring up trouble. At least there wasn't any room for archers to spawn on top of it this time. "If I recall correctly, the battering ram inside its mouth is its weak point. And wouldn't you know it, there it is!" Team Riku unloaded all their most powerful projectile spells into the Infernal Engine's bludgeoning tongue, shoving the boss almost all the way out of the hall. "Alright, grab on tight!" Lambda grabbed her teammates, equipped her Glider, and summoned her Protect Option again to physically ram the Infernal Engine across the Atrium and into the opposite hallway. "See you later!"

_"One minute to...Error. Self-destruct imminent..."_ The team blasted off through the front door of Lotus U and returned to the Hub, just as the school exploded behind them.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Trial Worlds: Hub..._

Lambda, Riku, and Mickey were flung into the Hub and collapsed in a heap next to the Dark Save Point. Behind them, the door to Lotus U buckled inward under a massive blast from the other side, then clicked as it locked itself permanently.

"Lambda?" Riku asked without looking her way.

"Yes, dear?" Lambda replied primly.

"Never do that again."

"Of course, dear."

Replica was less upset. Not having a physical body made it hard to take the possibility of injury seriously. _"To be fair, it did work. What's next?"_

The next door read:

_Trial World III:_

_The Black Lagoon_

Lambda blinked. "That doesn't sound familiar..."

"So it's not another rehash of the Training Worlds?" Riku guessed.

_"Still, if it's just the one lagoon, we'll probably run into the boss right away. Are you guys up for a third round?"_

"I will be by the time we've sent our report." Riku pulled out his Gummiphone and started texting.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_GummiNet Chatroom: Exploration Log..._

Riku: [Photo: the destroyed door to Trial World II] We've finished the second one...pretty thoroughly. _#TeamRiku #LotusU #SelfDestruct_

Riku: Looks like we can't expect the same tricks for the rest, though... _#TheBlackLagoon #BossRush_

Lambda: I think Riku's mad at me for putting us on a timer to get out before I blew up the school.

Riku: What gave you that idea? _#LuckyGuess_

Roxas: u blew up the whole school?!

Lambda: It was the best I could do to clean up the hordes of Heartless in there, since all the mechas were missing. I would've preferred to stomp on them in a giant robot. _#MissedOpportunities_

Sora: [Photo: A _Speed-Type Gigas_ shooting a _Power-Type Gigas_] we've been piloting enough giant robots to go around! well, giant compared to us i guess #toybox #teamsora #gigas #coolestthingever #youngxehanort

Kairi: Neat, everyone's online! Xion, Namine wants to ask if you can still turn into your "giant form"? I have no idea what she's talking about, though. I was apparently between kidnappings on Destiny Islands at the time. Speaking of kidnappings, we had to save one of the toys here who got possessed by a Heartless._ #StillInTraining #BuzzLightyear_

Xion: Guys, we don't have time for that! Lea's DEAD [screaming emoji]! Or he would be, but Roxas saved his heart at the last minute. We still need a new body for him, though. _#Marluxia #SneakAttack #Replicas_

Hazama: Aw, man, he was my favorite :( Next time I see those bastards, some revenge is in order...

Roxas: does anyone know where the keyblade graveyard is? we have to get even back _#vexen #replicaprogram_

Mickey: I could bring you there, but we're still in the Realm of Darkness...what happened to Marluxia? Is he still there?

Xion: No, I gave him a pretty nasty wound and he retreated [angry emoji]. _#FinalWeapon #Coward_

Roxas: do you think it's safe for lea if we keep on our mission here for now? we found someone who may or may not be a new Princess of Heart _#rapunzel #badasshairday_

Riku: If anything, it sounds like we should come to you. _#WorkingTogether_

Roxas: no we'll handle this. you keep looking for aqua. she can find the keyblade graveyard too right?

Riku: Will do. We'll check back in soon!

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_The Black Lagoon..._

_Defeat the World of Night!_

Team Riku passed through the third door and took in the scenery on the other side.

True to the name, The Black Lagoon consisted of a lake of pitch-black...something that _definitely_ wasn't water, surrounded by an endless wasteland. The boss was sailing on the surface of that inky ooze. Its vaguely boat-like shape, with the upper half of a giant, humanoid monster in place of sails, reminded Riku of the _World of Chaos_: the form that Ansem...er, X-Heartless...took to fight Sora, right around the time when Lambda first showed up in the Heart Timeline. The main difference was color scheme: the World of Chaos was mostly pink, while the _World of Night_ was mostly blue. And of course, X-Heartless wasn't fused with the giant monster on the back. "Great. So not only is this boss more of a _final_ boss, we have to find some way to fight it way out there without falling into this stuff."

"Target ID: _World of Night_. Threat level: A. Defense: SS, except for various weak points with a Defense rating of A. Speed: B. Strength: varies by section. It has a lot more weapons hidden all over it besides the C-class turrets it's using right now. But you're right; the real problem is getting close enough to fight it at all. Blizzard Option!" Lambda sent a snowflake-shaped drone over the lagoon, trailing an icy grind rail, but a series of cannons on the World of Night's deck shot the Option down before it could reach the boss, causing the grind rail to shatter. "Drat. That rules out my second idea - sending Options to pick it apart - too. And out of the four of us, I'm the only one who can fly that far. Mickey, do you have any long-range moves?"

"Nope. Pearl spells won't reach that far."

"Why don't we just teleport there with a Gate Between?" Riku asked.

"...Well, the reason for that is...because that's an _excellent _idea that I should've thought of first. Actually, we should've done that in the last world." Lambda groaned at herself and opened a Gate to bring Team Riku right onto the prow of the Heartless ship...or she tried to, but it turned out there was, in fact, a restriction on the use of Gates Between. They could only be used to pass between worlds, not within the same world.

Mickey sighed. "Gosh, I wish we all had Gliders, but I've checked with both of my Keyblades, and they don't have alternate forms."

Lambda thought about it. "Well, I could always fly us over with us all bubbled up on the bottom of a Protect Option barrier. We'd hardly look the part of a graceful flying force, but it'll get the job done."

_"It'll have to do. Bubble us up, Lambda." _She did. The flight was ponderously slow, and it was kind of awkward to maintain personal space with everyone rolling toward the bottom of the barrier, but they were safe; the World of Night's turrets didn't have enough oomph to pierce the barrier.

Once they made it across the lagoon, Lambda opened the barrier and dropped everyone on the main deck of the ship. The team started carving up the weird, sea life-like cannons, which were a lot less threatening up close. Once they cleared the deck, a dark portal opened up and sucked them all in.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Defeat all of the Heartless to escape from the Black Space!_

The portal deposited them in a pitch-black pocket dimension full of Shadows.

Riku scoffed as he tore the wimpy Heartless apart. "What did it expect these little guys to accomplish? They're not even Demon Towers."

_"Don't give it ideas!" _Replica picked off a few Shadows with a Dark Cannon volley.

Lambda diced up the last Shadow with her Petal Blades. "All targets terminated. Now what...oh!" A glowing red orb appeared in the middle of the "room", with glowing blue-white cords of power trailing up and down from it - it was obviously some kind of power core for the World of Night.

"Let's cut through and get out of here!" Mickey twirled through the core with his Keyblade, detonating it and collapsing the Black Space.

When Team Riku reappeared on the deck of the ship, the monstrous, four-eyed face serving as its figurehead began to move and roar, blasting the area directly around it with storms of lightning and bursts of Darkness.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Destroy the Face!_

"Geez, it really doesn't want us to get close...not that most of us could even reach it. Well, I guess this part's up to me." Lambda equipped her Glider and swooped out in front of the World of Night. At a slight distance, the _Face_ could only drop a lightning bolt on Lambda every few seconds, and each bolt was preceded by a glow that made it easy to dodge. Lambda's spells didn't deal much damage to the boss in return, though. Lambda considered the problem while idly dodging lightning bolts.

_I need more firepower...and this time, I can't expect Lea to come barging in and provide some. I'm not feeling lucky with the IDEA Engine here, either...I wonder if my Keyblade might have another Formchange?_

Lambda focused on her Keyblade, trying to come up with something more powerful than her Petal Blades. What came to her was a simple solution: **Petal Gunblades**. Each of the eight blades was slightly wider than the standard version to accommodate a beam rifle built in behind the edge. Lambda aimed them at the Face...

...And realized she was falling, since she was no longer using her Glider. "Whoops! Blizzard Option!" She landed on an ice rail just above the lagoon's surface and let it carry her back up to the battle. As she continued to grind in looping patterns to dodge more lightning and balls of Darkness, she peppered the Face with thin beams of white Light from her eight Petal Gunblades, intermixed with Firaga spells from each blade.

After a few passes, Lambda concentrated and pumped as much power through her floating weapons as possible - it was time for a finishing move! "Legacy Cannon!" Continuous beams fired from all eight blades arranged in a circle, intersecting into one giant beam that blasted down the World of Night's throat. When the smoke cleared, all that remained of the Face was another dark portal, which sucked the rest of the team along the deck and into another Black Space.

After a few seconds of resisting the pull, Lambda was about to follow them inside, but they came right back out, leaping out of the closing portal and back onto the deck. Lambda joined them and did her best to warm up her cold feet.

Replica crowed, _"No sweat! With the two of us together, Your Majesty, no crowd of Heartless can get in our way!"_

"Word." Riku pointed up at the colossal Heartless rising from the stern of the ship. More specifically, at the glowing _Main Core_ below its torso, which was no longer defended by a force field. "There's our next target! My turn!" He leaped all the way up from the lower deck to the core, which was defenseless except for a few more turrets that popped out around it. As Riku cleaved into the core with a few heavy, Bladecharge-enhanced swings, Lambda and Mickey worked their way along the middle deck wiping out the turrets.

The Main Core exploded quickly enough, but the monstrous _Guardian of Night_ remained active. With a mighty roar, it blew everyone off the deck and over the lagoon.

"Protect Option!" Lambda formed a barrier around the team, and they landed on the floor of the bubble. "...Okay, I've finally figured out how we can all get up there. Protect Option!" She created a second drone below them whose barrier didn't overlap the first. Then she dismissed the first Option and dropped the team on top of the second barrier, creating a curved platform that wouldn't just get shot out of the sky.

Riku eyed his feet with concern. "It's going to be tough to fight on this incline. It's slippery, too."

_"Don't worry, I've got it covered. Everyone jump in three, two, one...now!"_ They jumped, and Replica affixed a Dark Wall tangentially to the top of the barrier, producing a flat platform.

"Thanks for the assist! Now let's beat this guy!" Lambda brought their creation up to the level of the Guardian of Night's chest. A pulsing mass of purple Darkness in the vague shape of the Heartless Emblem filled the cavity where X-Heartless had fused with a similar boss - a sight that basically screamed, _This is my weak point! Hit me here!_

So of course the team unloaded a bunch of spells on that spot, including five Pearls, eight Dark Firagas, and three Blizzagas. Lambda reported, "Moderate damage confirmed...uh-oh, it's counterattacking!"

The Guardian reared back its massive arms and swept a mighty double swing toward the heroes. Thankfully, the sheer force of the motion blew their platform far away before the monster's claws could connect. It followed up by generating floating spheres of Darkness that fired defense-piercing lasers as soon as they were fully charged. Lambda did her best to weave around the incoming attacks and bring the platform back into melee range, not letting any lasers strike her Protect Option and potentially ruin the platform.

Team Riku laid into the boss with all their Keyblade-wielding skill, but it withstood the assault long enough to launch a glob of Darkness from its mouth...straight past them? Lambda looked back just in time to see the glob grow into a huge void that began sucking in their floating platform. It clearly wasn't a relativistic black hole, though, since energy was constantly escaping it - in the form of streamer-like rays of Darkness that homed in on the heroes!

Lambda grabbed Riku and Mickey and equipped her Glider. "Hold on tight!" She dismissed the Protect Option to focus all her power on her thrusters, and managed to resist the suction of the void enough to take cover behind the Guardian itself. As she expected, the homing rays splashed against its torso to no effect.

Suddenly, though, the suction increased threefold, pulling Team Riku flat against the Guardian's back. They held on to its surprisingly spongy skin as tightly as they could before the suction suddenly died off, and a loud ***BOOOM*** let them know the void had exploded.

"Let's _not_ let it do that again." Riku climbed up the back of the Guardian as it hunched over in fatigue, dropped down the other side, and laid a hand against the weak point. "Dark Cannon!" He pumped the Guardian full of Dark Firagas until the weak point finally gave way. The entire World of Night was wracked with explosions, leading to one final blast that sent Team Riku back to the Hub.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV  
**

_Hub..._

Riku wiped his palms against each other. "Nailed it. Great work, everyone!"

"What's next?" Mickey checked out the next door:

_Trial World IV:_

_Mirage Arena_

None of them recognized the name. Replica mused, _"Hmm, could be a whole tournament, or just one extra-tough fight. Probably just one, the way things have been going. So let's clear it already!"_

"Wait, we should report in again." Lambda tilted her head back and started mentally typing.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_GummiNet Chatroom: Exploration Log_

Lambda: [Photo: Door to Trial World IV] We cleared another one! It looks like the next one is another single boss fight, too. At this rate, we'll be done with these Trial Worlds before the day's through! #BossRush #DarkRescue

Kairi: [Photo: Kairi as a birdlike monster with pink feathers and cat claws] We've been keeping up the pace on our end, too! These transformations are getting weird, though; I can't say I'm a huge fan of the beak... #Monsteropolis #WorldOrder

Donald: [Photo: Group picture of Team Sora's monster forms, along with Mike and Sully] heres what we all look like! team sora exterminators are on the case! #exterminators #unversed

Goofy: [Photo: A Flood type Unversed] Speakin' of the Unversed, Donald and I haven't seen these around in a while! I thought there was a reason for that, but I can't quite remember...

Mickey: WHAT?! But those came from Vanitas! That must mean he's one of the ones who came back with Master Xehanort! Make sure you look into the Archives on your Gummiphones, fellas! #Ventus #Vanitas #XBlade

Sora: oops ive kinda been ignoring that stuff. sorry jiminy. #toomanywords #confusing

Roxas: speaking of confusing, im almost certain rapunzel really is a new princess of heart...or at least a princess #royaltyreveal #kidnapped

Xion: She raised our local buddy Flynn...I mean Eugene, from the dead with her tears! [angel emoji] I don't think it would've worked on Lea, though... _#TrueLove #Miracle #Light #HappilyEverAfter_

Kairi: But wait, I still have all my #PrincessPerks! Are we sure Rapunzel's a new Princess? If so, which Princess lost her powers, or died, or what?

Hazama: Intriguing! I'll look into it ;) Shouldn't be too hard to match the Princesses recorded on my phone to the ones out there. Meanwhile, you should know Marluxia's trail led me to Larxene in #Arendelle.

Hazama: I think she was sent to find another one of those New Seven Hearts they're looking for...or two? Someone should follow up on that. Someone besides me; that whole world's already frozen over, and I really hate the cold!

Roxas: we'll handle it. we've got coats, and lea's heart is literally warm. as for our other task, though, ienzo, hows ansems code coming along? #_heartwarming #crackingthecode_

Ienzo: I've actually decoded most of it! The majority of it is data on hearts that used to reside within Sora...but most of them have since been reconstructed, and you already have a plan to save the one that remains. It seems Master Ansem's data came too late...but his notes on how hearts can be enveloped within other hearts have given me a few ideas on how to help Namine and Replica...among other applications that I dare not speak of on a public channel. #ZexionVI #CrackingTheCode #ExOrganization #PossiblySpies

Xigbar: BOO! It's about time one of you noticed! ;) #TotallySpies #AlwaysWatching #NewOrganization

Xion: I know you're trying to jump-scare us, but shouldn't your emoticon be .) instead of ;) because you only have one eye?

Roxas: lol

Sora: lol

Donald: rofl

Goofy: ROFL

Cid (Admin): Take a drink every time those three names show up in order! I just logged in to remind everyone to keep your conversations civil in the chatroom. Remember, there are (maybe) kids listening! #SoraDonaldGoofy #DrinkingGame #VagueAges

Riku: LOL

Lambda: All joking aside, we should probably avoid making plans and in-depth discussions on this channel if Xigbar's lurking on it.

Xigbar: I'm lurking on all of them! And for the record, it would be "(," because I still have my left eye.

Lambda: Case in point. But there might be a silver lining here...nope, it looks like they don't use the chatroom to discuss their evil plans. I don't see any reason not to chat openly with your group, though.

Xigbar: Already trying to hack us? .( Good thing we saw that coming .D

Lambda: Already succeeded, for the most part. Catch you later, Darknesses!

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Hazama's Gummiphone display..._

[Lambda has sent you a private message, and an attached app. Download program Y/N/Later?]

Later

Hazama ran the file through a virus scanner he'd transferred from his old NOL-issued phone, just to be safe.

[Scanning...no malware detected.]

Download

Lambda (Private): This app tracks the location of the knockoff Gummiphones being used by the "Darknesses". Do whatever you want with it if you have the time. Thanks for all your help! Also, here's some lunch money, so you're not _only_ helping us for that warm fuzzy feeling.

[Lambda has transferred 1200 munny to you.]

Hazama closed the message with a bemused smile. "Well, a hero's work is never done, as they say. At least she's not badgering me to stay on schedule like a certain Architect I used to know."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Trial World IV: Mirage Arena..._

Riku, Lambda, and Mickey found themselves in the middle of a colorful arena floating in space. The whole place was made of angular, glowing red and blue blocks that enclosed a huge, circular blue platform. Between the blocks, a cloudy sky could be seen, reminiscent of the Darkness that surrounded most people's heart's Stations. There was enough space to fight some of the most massive enemies they'd ever encountered, though it wasn't quite big enough to accommodate Xemnas' old robot dragons.

So it was kind of odd that the only enemy facing them was a single, human-sized entity that looked exactly like Riku, except it was pitch black with the typical glowing yellow eyes of the Heartless. It stood out starkly against the glowing floor.

"Scanning... Target ID: _Anti-Riku. _Threat level...WAAAGH!"

The _Anti-Riku_ didn't give Lambda time to finish her report before it made its first attack, a brutal swing of its pitch-black copy of **Way to Dawn**. Everyone jumped backward to avoid it, but Anti-Riku kept pressing its advantage with endless aggressive melee attacks. Only Mickey managed to split off from the group, trying to circle around.

_"Enough of this! Dark Shield!"_ Replica repelled one of Anti-Riku's attacks, causing it to stagger, but then it vanished in a burst of Darkness.

Recognizing his own Shadow Slide technique, Riku spun around to parry his shadowy double's counterattack...but the strength behind that blow was ridiculous! It was so strong, in fact, that Riku's Keyblade was sundered and cut in half, unable to hold back the Darkness. Riku watched, dumbfounded, as the angel-winged tip of Way to Dawn tumbled away, leaving him holding just the hilt. The slit-pupiled blue eye set in the handguard seemed to mock him.

"No! Riku!" Lambda rushed at Anti-Riku and distracted it from going for a finishing blow, but found herself unable to keep up with more than a few fast swings of that dark Keyblade copy before she was forced to back up again. Rather than try to match its superior swordsmanship, Lambda equipped her Glider and darted in and out with kicks and spells, trying to keep the enemy off balance.

Riku tried dismissing and re-summoning his Keyblade, but it came back just as broken as before. "How is this even possible?! Rrgh...fine!" Riku dismissed his broken Keyblade and summoned his old sword, Soul Eater, instead. (As a reminder, it looked almost the same as his Keyblade, except its blade was more curved and lacked any angel wings. Instead of the iconic round handguard of a Keyblade, what looked like blunt teeth from some beast protruded from the base of the blade.) The demonic wing-shaped blade pulsed with the Power of Darkness, and the slit-pupiled eye set into its hilt glinted with reflections of the battle. "Sunder THIS! Maelstrom!" He shredded his double with a spin attack and an uppercut while Lambda had it distracted.

"IDEA Engine, activate! Firaga!" Lambda launched several enhanced fireballs that slipped past Anti-Riku's defenses, but didn't trigger any Quantum Criticals.

_"Here, have a few more! Dark Barrage!"_ Replica summoned a storm of twelve Soul Eaters that rained down on what he viewed as the inferior copy.

"HOLY!" Mickey, who had been forgotten in the crossfire, dropped a charged-up pillar of Light on Anti-Riku, disintegrating it for good.

Riku dismissed his sword and caught his breath. "*Huff, huff*...Did we do it?" As if in reply, the Mirage Arena faded away.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_GummiNet Chatroom: Exploration Log..._

Riku: [Photo: Way to Dawn's broken hilt] Bad news, everyone. While we did clear the next Trial World, the boss there managed to break my Keyblade somehow. #Anti-Riku #MirageArena #BrokenKey #SoulEater

Riku: How does that even work? Can it be fixed? Am I already a failure as a Keyblade Master?

Mickey: Of course not, and I'm going to text you while standing right next to you to make sure everyone knows! There are ways to fix this, but we'll have to leave the Trial Worlds for now. #YenSid

Sora: dont worry, riku! weve both lost our keyblades before, and it worked out fine! #myfriendsaremypower #AndImTheirs

Riku: Thanks, Sora. That means a lot to me. I guess we'll be heading back now.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Twilight Town: The Old Mansion: Library..._

Team Riku stepped out of the Dark Save Point, where they nearly appeared on top of Pence. "Whoa! Hey, what are you all doing here? And don't I recognize you...oh wait, you're Mickey and Lambda! And that would make you...Riku? You look completely different than you did during the Time Break incident!"

"Long story short: don't go through the Dark Save Point over there. There are things in there that can overpower a Keyblade Master." Riku showed Pence his broken Keyblade.

"Oh. Then, isn't it...maybe a bad idea to leave it active like this, then?" Pence examined the gargoyle with the glowing eyes. "Ah-HA! Found a button! Aaand...CLICK!"

"Wait, what if-" Too late; Pence had already pushed the button. The gargoyle's eyes went out, and the Dark Save Point vanished. "Hey! What if it doesn't come back on?!"

"No problem." Pence pushed the button again, and the Dark Save Point reappeared. He deactivated it again after the demonstration. "There'd be no reason to create a 'Save Point' if you couldn't resume your progress!"

Lambda groaned. "Great, we've got another one. But video game logic does seem to consistently apply to us..."

"So, Pence," Mickey put in, "are you here for the computer downstairs?"

"Yep! I just managed to connect it to a different terminal somewhere before I took a break for lunch. I can't wait to show it to Hayner and Olette! We've been meeting up here for a few days now, trying to figure what all that stuff down in the basement is for."

"Ya know what? Let me introduce you to a...friend of ours." Mickey set up a video call. "Hello? Ienzo? I've got someone here who might be able to help us with Ansem's computers."

Ienzo's face appeared on the phone's screen, peering in Pence's direction. _"Ah, excellent! It's always a joy to see young minds interested in electronics! I'll make sure he gets a Gummiphone right away. But wait...how does he know about Ansem's computers?"_

Pence spoke up. "So that computer in the old mansion belongs to someone named 'Ansem'? I just got it working again and started poking around. Is it important?"

_"If I'm right, you found the lab my late master used while he was in hiding. There could be a great deal of data to be mined from that terminal! And even if not, it's an important link between our worlds. Uh...you do know about other worlds, right?"_

"I know a little, yeah. My friends and I would be glad to help out, Ienzo!"

"That's great," Riku interrupted, "but we can't stick around and chat. I have to ask Yen Sid how to fix my Keyblade...aaand we left the _Highwind _back in your world, didn't we, Ienzo? Now we're stuck."

"We could use Corridors of Darkness, if we really needed to," Lambda reminded him.

_"No need for that! Conveniently, we now have a delivery to make. If I may borrow your vessel for the journey, I can bring Pence's friends some Gummiphones, bring you back to Radiant Garden, and you can head out from there."_

Pence cheered, "Thanks! My friends are Hayner and Olette, so bring three phones!"

Mickey nodded. "Sounds good. We'll be waiting by the Station Tower - ya can't miss it! See ya!" He ended the call.

Lambda shrugged. "I guess we have some time to kill before they get here. Who's up for a meal break at Le Grande Bistrot?"

Riku rubbed his belly. "Definitely."

Pence pumped his fist in the air. "Count me in!"

Mickey offered, "I'll pay!"

Lambda counter-offered, "Only if I manage your budget. No need to go overboard."

"No problem."

They all headed out to make the short trek back to town. The typical Heartless infesting the woods and the tunnels were oddly absent, but there were scorch marks and gouges in a few places along the walls. Someone must have cleared out the Heartless recently.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Twilight Town: Tram Common..._

Team Riku (plus Pence) arrived in front of Le Grande Bistrot, where most of the tables were already full. One table in particular seated four familiar teens.

Pence called out to them, "Heya, Disciplinary Committee! Nice job clearing out the tunnels!"

Seifer drawled, "It was easy...no thanks to you Usual Suspects. But I suppose I can let it slide, since the other two are here serving our meal."

"Gee, thanks," Hayner grumbled as he brought out a plate of food. "Oh, hi, Riku! Here for the same thing as last time?"

Riku shrugged. "Just something small. We're expecting someone to come pick us up soon."

"Okay, three recommended appetizers coming right up!" Hayner jotted down the order on a notepad and turned to go.

Lambda spoke up, "Hey, can I try cooking with 'the Little Chef'?"

"Sure! He's always happy to work with new faces, and you'll get your order made faster that way. Follow me!"

Hayner led Riku and Mickey to a table on the edge of the pavilion and led Lambda inside the building. A few minutes passed to the sound of sizzling vegetables and clanking pans before Lambda returned, carrying a platter of yummy-looking food with an apprehensive expression on her face.

"I hope I got these right. The records from the Azure Timeline paint a...gruesome picture of my sister Prime Field Devices and their cooking skills."

_"You try the first bite, then. I'll pass."_ Obviously, since Replica was physically unable to eat.

Lambda set everyone's food out and speared a fried shrimp on her fork. "Here goes nothing...Mmm! This is pretty good!"

Riku took a bite of his own food. "Yeah, it's actually better than Sora's. I thought Remy was in complete control, but I guess he still needs a competent partner."

Remy took his paws away from where he was using Lambda's hair curl as a joystick, nodded, gave Lambda a thumbs-up, and scampered back into the kitchen.

Mickey wiped around his snout with his napkin. "I sure wouldn't mind eating your cooking again, Lambda!"

Lambda sighed in relief. "Thank goodness I don't share Noel's curse of the Death Dinner."

"How bad could it be?" Pence asked with his mouth full.

Lambda shuddered. "You _don't_ want to know. _I _don't want to know. I shouldn't have asked the database, but I did, and now I'm telling you: you don't want to know."

"Oookay then."

Riku stood up and pushed in his chair. "Ienzo should be here soon. Let's head over to the Station Plaza." Everyone said their farewells to Pence and headed out.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Station Plaza..._

_[X-Heartless ambushes party]_

As the team reached the top of the mountain on which Twilight Town was built, Riku crinkled his nose. "Uh-oh. I'd recognize that dark stank anywhere. Get ready for a fight, everyone!" He summoned Soul Eater and whirled to the left as a Dark Corridor opened.

"Indeeeeed. It is I, Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness!" The humanoid Heartless floated through the Corridor with his arms crossed.

Unimpressed, Lambda informed him, "We've taken to calling you 'X-Heartless' nowadays. Less confusion with the other Ansem that way."

Ansem retorted, "Yet the other Ansem is dead now, thanks to his misguided attempt to keep Xemnas from acquiring his artificial Kingdom Hearts. Why should I not take a name that is not in use?"

"Actually, now that you mention it, we never found his body," Riku mused.

"Hey, you're right!" Mickey exclaimed. "I'll bet that blast of Light just swept him away to another world! After all, something similar happened to me before."

Replica took up the theory. _"Then Kingdom Hearts would've drawn him into the Realm of Darkness, like Sora and Riku did after beating Xemnas."_

X-Heartless began to laugh, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "Ha ha ha ha...very interesting! I had intended to merely taunt you and undermine Riku's confidence, but the possibility that Ansem the Wise yet lives in the Realm of Darkness is one I wish to investigate without delay. He and I never finished our last scholarly debate, after all. Farewell for now. We shall meet again...at the Keyblade Graveyard!" X-Heartless vanished in a swirl of Darkness...

...Just in time for the _Highwind_ to land in the Station Plaza and generate a teleport circle to let Team Riku board. Ienzo had finally arrived.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Gummi Space: Starlight Way..._

Once the team boarded the ship and sat down on a bench, Ienzo gave them a polite nod and launched back into Gummi Space. "I took the liberty of delivering those Gummiphones while you dealt with 'X-Heartless', so we can be on our way immediately."

This sector, _Starlight Way_, was surrounded by a brilliant panorama of stars. Nearby, chunks of various biomes could be seen floating in space: a volcanic cave, a foggy forest, and a few large, barren asteroids. Littered throughout the zone were formations of Heartless ships, loose munny, and some "Waypoint" satellites that had been spread all across the Ocean Between by Cid to maintain the GummiNet and function as targets for Warp Gummis.

Ienzo ignored all of this scenery and set a course for an unoccupied edge of the zone. As the _Highwind _approached the invisible wall dividing this zone from all the others, the apprentice scientist pressed a button that opened a wormhole to a different zone.

Lambda briefly wondered why Ienzo hadn't said, _"Aaand CLICK!"_ as he pressed the button, before the ship passed through the wormhole. Must have been because he was still an apprentice.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_EX Gummi Space: Shining Depths..._

The wormhole led them to a zone they hadn't seen before, since Mickey had crashed the ship so quickly the last time they were in the area. _Shining Depths_ was less like the depths of outer space, and more like being just under the sea. Starlight flickered and refracted through a medium with the consistency of liquid, surrounding the zone in rippling patterns of light. In place of asteroids, a giant coral reef dominated the center of the zone. Lambda caught a glimpse of a massive shadow that might have been Monstro moving among the colorful towers of coral, but their course was taking them around the reef, toward one of four worlds along the edge of the zone: Disney Castle, Destiny Islands, the Mysterious Tower (which had apparently moved around again), and their destination, Radiant Garden.

Riku remarked, "Wow, who would've thought we'd be so close to home? Small World, I guess."

"We should all definitely check in with our families and loved ones soon," Mickey suggested.

"Soon, but after you rectify Riku's Keyblade problem," Ienzo agreed as he carefully directed the ship into a newly-constructed Gummi Garage. "I will depart here, and Riku - _not_ Mickey - can take the controls to bring you to the Mysterious Tower, which should be simple enough to reach from here." Ienzo teleported off the ship, and Riku shuffled into the pilot's seat, directing the _Highwind_ to take off once more.

Mickey sighed at his inability to form a properly repentant frown. "They're never going to let me live down that crash, are they?"

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_A/N's: EDIT: One important line of dialogue added._

_EDIT 2: All GummiNet conversations updated to reflect changes in the next chapter._

_Dear guest reviewers "Ultrabeast", "UltraHero", and "Freehero21": are you all the same person, or are you three different people asking the same question? Please get an account of your own in the future, rather than posting guest reviews (which I can't reply to) in the wrong fanfic!_

_Seriously. It's free, it's easy, it doesn't actually require you to write any fanfics of your own, and it lets me answer your questions in private._

_To answer your oft-repeated question: remember that Young Xehanort was being beaten up by Riku at the time, and thus he was thoroughly distracted. And since the main other one whom I'd expect to be immune to Stopza - Master Xehanort himself - had his consciousness riding shotgun with his younger self to provide his anomalous Keyblade, the old master was left just as oblivious to the goings-on in the Round Room. Plus, his half-formed body was definitely stopped along with the rest in the game. It's vaguely possible that Xigbar might be immune as well, if he's actually Luxu in this AU (I'm not quite sure whether I should take this fic in that direction yet), but even so, he would definitely pretend not to know, in order to maintain his illusion of incompetence. And Luxord hadn't rejoined their group...yet._

_As for Team Kairi being immune to Stopza: they aren't. They simply arrived after the spell was already cast. All Stop spells work like that in the games. They don't halt any Heartless that wander into the spell's area after the initial cast. As an ex-Prime Field Device equipped for the temporal shenanigans of the Boundary, Lambda would be able to tell that she had been stopped once it was over, but she still wouldn't have been able to move during the effect if it had actually hit her. But it didn't._

_I hope this clears some things up for you, and I look forward to chatting with you and replying to your reviews via PMs if you decide to get an account. I'm glad you're trying to make sure I keep my facts straight, so I would appreciate your continued oversight._


End file.
